A Holiday Tradition Downtown Bangor comes alive Saturday with parade, tree lighting and window displays

Two years ago, Eastern Maine Technical College’s float featured a menorah and didn’t really fit in to what was then Bangor’s more traditional Christmas parade.

“There really wasn’t a category for us,” Jeff Harris, the college’s housing director, said of the 1999 entry, which like EMTC’s subsequent floats, also touched on Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and Ramadan.

But last year – the first year of the Bangor Rotary’s Holiday Festival of Lights Parade – the thousands who bundled up to brave the teeth-chattering temperatures after dark took notice of the giant silver menorah and Star of David on the college’s float, which won the outstanding theme award.

This year – just the second time the procession will be held after sundown – the Saturday parade will begin at 4:30 p.m., followed by the annual tree lighting in downtown’s West Market Square about an hour later.

And while there’s sure to be plenty of illuminated Santas and reindeer in the evening parade on the downtown streets, the red crescent moon symbolic of the Muslim faith also will be part of the EMTC float – a conscious effort to be inclusive of local Muslims in a sensitive social climate after the Sept. 11 attacks on America, Smith said.

“I feel for people from Islamic countries who are bearing the brunt of this,” Harris said, noting that the inclusion fits well with this year’s parade theme, Peace on Earth. “Some people look at one faction of a group and judge everyone. It’s unjust. It’s unfair.”

Last year, 56 entries made their way past the decorated windows of the downtown shops, many of which stayed open later to take advantage of the crowds looking to get out of the cold – and more importantly for local merchants – shop.

“It was such a good idea,” Rebecca’s Gift Shop owner Rick Vigue said of the last year’s decision to hold the parade in the evening, giving visitors a chance to shop during the day and stick around for the evening parade and tree lighting, he said. “If the weather cooperates, it’s a better flow for everybody.”

As part of the downtown festivities this weekend, Vigue on Friday will again hold his Christmas open house at the Main Street shop from 6 to 10 p.m. As in years past, the Brian Nadeau Band will play.

Vigue and some other downtown business owners said they planned to stay open until after the tree lighting Saturday to give latecomers a chance to shop in the downtown, which invariably gets a notable boost from the heavy holiday foot traffic on parade day.

This year, Alyssa and Breanne McIntyre, two Newburgh girls who recorded a song called “Yes We Stand,” as a tribute to America’s recovery from the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, will serve as the parade marshals, said parade organizer Shawn Yardley of the Bangor Rotary Club, which is again sponsoring the event with corporate backer Adelphia.

Both organizations have made a commitment to make the parade as inclusive as possible, said Yardley, who praised the work of those who made last year’s parade so effective in bringing attention to the less common celebrations of the season, he said.

“I think that’s especially fitting now,” Yardley said.

There will be some slight changes in the parade route this year, Yardley said, with participants setting up on Front Street near the Sea Dog restaurant, winding their way though the downtown and ending at Fleet Bank on Exchange Street.

Sally Bates, a business and economic development officer for the city, said visitors to the downtown and its parks will also notice new holiday decorations funded by the city of Bangor, Bangor Center Corp., Bangor Hydro Electric Co., Coe Management Group, Republic Parking System, Bagel Central, Merrill Bank, Lovely Development Inc., Hilltop Inc., Bangor Gas, Ray and Marlo Bradford and Bangor Greyhound Lines.

Also as part of this year’s festivities, empty storefront windows are already filling up with holiday decorations. Among the companies and organizations providing the window trimmings are Advanced Payroll Plus, Airborne Express, A Loving Touch, Anthem Blue Cross, Bangor Daily News, Bangor Parks and Recreation, Bass Park, Gross Minsky & Mogul P.A., KeyBank, Prexar, Republic Parking System, Tate Finch P.A., WERU, WLBZ NewsCenter 2, WVII-TV Channel 7, and Woodard and Curran.

Bates said this week that the parade’s new evening format and its relationship to the tree lighting has been well received by the public.

“They were looking for something more exciting,” Bates said of the sponsors’ efforts to draw more attention to the downtown festivities. “And it certainly looks like they did that.”