As much to do with the meaning of Christmas as…

Well…as anything really.

But I suppose if you were to be asked (imagine on Who Wants to be a Millionaire) which city has the world’s largest Christmas pageant, the largest of any type in the Southern Hemisphere and the second in size to only Macy’s Thanksgiving parade in New York…the answer has to be Adelaide!

Top that off with 300,000 spectators for a two hour event, some camping out overnight, others setting up their kerbside chairs at 3am and you’ve got all the craziness of Australia in one place and time!

So…I had to see it! And yes, it seemed to take forever to pass, had all ages participating and I mean all ages! Cruelty to seniors is not a crime here it seems! But for many it signals the start of Christmas (I know!), time to put up the decs but most of all the starting gun for the retail fest which Christmas has become. And in that sense the pageant was more of a homage to the great gods of retail than any other meaning!

So…enjoy the photos; the weather may look warm but it’s not (have just been told by a total stranger in a cafe that it’s really cold for November and how was I enjoying the English weather!). Next week after I’m gone…it reaches the mid-20s and above again!

What is also notable was that every street cleaning machine possible (and probably known to mankind) was on the streets minutes after the end and everything back to normal within an hour – after all, the great god of retail has to come first!