Tens of thousands of parade goers packed the streets of Greenwich Village for the return of NYC’s 48th Annual Village Halloween Parade on Sunday, Oct. 31. Photo by Julia Bonavita

A Swamp Monster walks in NYC’s 48th Annual Village Halloween Parade on Sunday, Oct. 31 in Greenwich Village, NY. Photo by Julia Bonavita

A giant skeleton walks in NYC’s 48th Annual Village Halloween Parade on Sunday, Oct. 31 in Greenwich Village, NY. Photo by Julia Bonavita

Revelers in NYC’s 48th Annual Village Halloween Parade on Sunday, Oct. 31 in Greenwich Village, NY. Photo by Julia Bonavita

Revelers in NYC’s 48th Annual Village Halloween Parade on Sunday, Oct. 31 in Greenwich Village, NY. Photo by Julia Bonavita

Attendees of NYC’s 48th Annual Village Halloween Parade show off their costumes on Sunday, Oct. 31 in Greenwich Village, NY. Photo by Julia Bonavita

An undead trumpeter marches down 6th Avenue during NYC’s 48th Annual Village Halloween Parade on Sunday, Oct. 31 in Greenwich Village, NY. Photo by Julia Bonavita

Revelers in NYC’s 48th Annual Village Halloween Parade on Sunday, Oct. 31 in Greenwich Village, NY. Photo by Julia Bonavita

An Easter-loving parade-goer marches throughout NYC’s 48th Annual Village Halloween Parade on Sunday, Oct. 31 in Greenwich Village, NY. Photo by Julia Bonavita

Costumed revelers march through the streets of NYC’s 48th Annual Village Halloween Parade on Sunday, Oct. 31 in Greenwich Village, NY. Photo by Julia Bonavita

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In addition to celebrations on the streets, roughly 2,000 churches around the city hold Easter Sunday services, the most famous of them all being  at St. Patrick’s Cathedral.

But this year, with COVID-19 ravaging New York, the now epicenter of the world’s coronavirus outbreak, there was no parade, no services, nothing that would reflect a celebration.

This is Easter Sunday in New York City during COVID-19.

A person wearing a protective suit walks down Park Avenue and past Christ Church, April 12, 2020. Photo by Thomas Hengge

A person wearing bunny ears passes by a closed down church, April 12, 2020. Photo by Thomas Hengge

A man wearing a crown of thorns and various religious signifiers near Radio City Music Hall, April 12, 2020. Photo by Thomas Hengge

A person stands outside a closed St. Patrick’s Cathedral, April 12, 2020. Photo by Thomas Hegge.

Flowers sit outside St. Patrick’s Cathedral, April 12, 2020. Photo by Thomas Hengge

A sign outside St. Bart’s Church offers information regarding livestream services, April 12, 2020. Photo by Thomas Hengge

A virtually empty 5th Avenue where the annual NYC Easter Bonnet Parade was to take place, April 12, 2020. Photo by Thomas Hengge

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David Gomez and his daughter, 9-year-old Melinda, look on during Tuesday's Giants Super Bowl parade. Photo by Louie Lazar.

With a blue “NY” painted on her face and grinning as if she was awaiting entry into Willie Wonka’s chocolate factory, Melinda Gomez, 9, had a single word to describe how she felt about missing school in favor of the Giants’ Super Bowl parade.

“Happy,” the fourth-grader said.

“Happy is an understatement,” added her father, David Gomez, who’d brought the family in from Long Island for the occasion.

Melinda was one of countless pint-sized Giants fans who’d been excused from school to help pack the championship procession route along Broadway in Lower Manhattan on Tuesday.

In Thomas Paine Park, father-child piggyback rides were a common sight and kids, seeking better views, perched themselves in trees like oversized pigeons. In one of those trees, about 15 feet above ground, were 10-year-old twins Eric and Chris Schneider, who wore matching Giants Super Bowl shirts. They’d taken the Long Island Railroad here with their father, David Schneider, who sat underneath the tree like a spotter at an Olympic gymnastics event.

“These guys never miss school,” the elder Schneider said. “But this is worth it.”

Schneider said he had no misgivings about removing his kids from school, since they’re both straight A students.

Plus, “their mom said it was okay,” he said.

Twin brothers Chris and Eric Schneider, 10, climbed a tree to get a better look at the parade route. The straight A students missed their first day of school all year. Photo by Louie Lazar.

Across Worth Street, where tour buses lined the curb and passing fans barked out expletive-filled chants, a group of eager elementary school children stood on steps outside the City Clerk Office. Some were giggling, others had missing teeth, but nearly all held up signs that read “Go Giants!,” “PS1 Loves U,” or “PS1 Mrs. Curry’s Class.”

An adult identifying herself as their teacher, Mrs. Curry, denied that the kids were skipping class.

“They’re not missing school,” she insisted, noting that their building was just down the street and that the event was a cultural experience.

“It’s their lunch,” she also made clear.

Back in the park, with anticipation and raucousness building as floats neared the vicinity,
Mario Gomez of Hasbrouck Heights, N.J., stood on a bench alongside his children, Mario, 10 and Odaliana, 7. Immediately after the Giants had clinched the title Sunday night, Gomez said he’d obtained permission from each of his kids’ teachers with regard to their absence on Tuesday.

He stressed that he’d attached a condition to his kids attending the parade.

“I made sure they did their homework,” Gomez said, with much seriousness. “I don’t want them to get penalized.”

Jubilant third grade students from PS1 attend the Giants parade during their lunch break on Tuesday. Photo by Louie Lazar.

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Dave Cutolo used a plastic red horn to inspire fans at the Giants Super Bowl parade to cheer. Photo by Chris Palmer.

Thousands of Giants’ fans traveled from all over the New York metro region to attend today’s Super Bowl victory parade in Lower Manhattan, but one boisterous group of supporters on Cortlandt Street only had to walk a few blocks to catch the action.

“We do whatever we want, we’re stock brokers!” said Dave Cutolo, 44, oozing with bravado.

Cutolo, of Murray Hill, was standing with a group of work associates who all worked “down the street,” he said, without identifying the company they worked for. Wearing a black coat over his brown suit and patterned yellow tie, he held a plastic red horn that he bought from a street vendor in one hand, a coffee cup half-filled with beer in the other.

Cutolo and pals all wore suits and overcoats, standing out in a sea of people clad in Giants’ blue. But their attire didn’t prevent them from mixing in with the crowd: they hooted, hollered, laughed and screamed at passerby, passing the horn around and joining in the various “Let’s Go Giants!” chants that arose out of the massive crowd bordering Broadway.

Elvin Lopez, left, and Ron McClintock are stock brokers who were enjoying themselves at the Giants' Super Bowl parade. Photo by Chris Palmer

Ron McClintock, 32, a member of this stock-broking entourage, brushed off the idea that they were sacrificing time at work for a day of partying, saying that they could easily enjoy themselves while being productive.

“We’ll go back and forth,” he said, confidence dripping out of his pores. “We’ll go back (to the office), make some calls, make some money, and then come back.”

And the celebration would last all night, he said.

“See all these women?” he said, motioning to the enormous crowd. “I’m going to be like a fish net, scooping up everything.”

McClintock and Elvin Lopez, 31, were eager to express their love of this season’s Giants’ team, and Lopez said the way the team fought through the playoffs was representative of the city’s attitude.

“It’s such a New York story,” he said. “Everyone’s walking a little taller today, a little prouder.”

“It’s the greatest thing,” McClintock said. “No one stops (the Patriots) but New York.”

But Cutolo, despite being a Giants fan, wasn’t totally thrilled with the game’s outcome.

“I had money on the game,” he said, explaining that he needed the final score to end with the numbers five and three in order to take home the cash.

He wasn’t letting his lost wager depress him too much, though: while he and his friends attempted to whip the surrounding crowd into a frenzy, he cast an optimistic lens on the rest of his afternoon.

“I’ve got to go inside and make $2,000,” he said with a smile. “Then we can go back (here) and have fun.”

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