Yesterday, Easter Sunday for most of the western Christian rites, closed the day with a rare showing of the 1948 Oscar winning musical, “Easter Parade.” Songs, dances, a far-fetched plot, and two lead stars who were called in as last-minute replacements. All inspired by a single song from 15 years prior, Irving Berlin’s “Easter Parade.”

I’ve been around a long time and live outside a city that will hold a parade or a fireworks display, or both, for almost any reason, including next week’s solar eclipse. But I’ve never seen an Easter parade. Have you?

You would think of all the things we’ve paraded for, Easter would be high on somebody’s list. It’s a natural time for a celebration, not just a Christian celebration. The beginning of spring hosts a bevy of religious holidays, spring breaks, and just a great time to shake off the winter blues. Or grays.

Spring is a time of new life, bright colors, happy songs, and a spring in most people’s steps (pun intended). That’s the definition of a parade. Can’t you just imagine a high school band lining the avenue, the high brass section playing about frilly Easter bonnets, woodwinds echoing the antics of the photographer on Fifth Avenue, all almost in time with the beat laid down by the bass drums and deep brass. I want to march around the room just thinking about it.

Instead, we march to open pre-Black Friday sales and the tapping of the green beer kegs. What a waste of a happy song.

Spring isn’t just a time for parades that don’t happen but for spring cleaning too. Did you ever spring clean yourself? In the latest Uplift we write about doing just that. Check out our version of Spring Cleaning.