A Brief History of the Rose Bowl

The Rose Parade has been a long standing tradition here in Pasadena. Every New Year’s Day throngs flock to the streets for a chance to see the parade up-close. Others stay home and watch the parade in their jammies, along with the rest of the country, snuggled up with loved ones.

This year the parade is officially known as the 127th Rose Parade Presented by Honda. A lot of the country may think that the parade is there to accompany the football game but that is not true. Some football fans may consider it blasphemy but Sindee Roboli of Sharp Seating told Pasadena Now that “The Rose Bowl Game initially was just an added feature to the parade to entice more people to show up.”

The first parade was conceived back in 1890. There was a hunt club that year, Valley Hunt Club, which wanted to entice tourists from the east coast to head west. They came up with a parade to precede a contest for the most beautiful California blooms. A gentleman professor named Charles F. Holder proclaimed “Here our flowers are blooming and our oranges are about to bear. Let’s hold a festival to tell the world about our paradise.”

The parade has evolved over the years from such things as a camel versus elephant races to amazing floats decorated with thousands of pounds of flowers. Tickets are on sale right now for the Friday January 1st, 2016 event, prices range from $48.00­$95.00. To order tickets visit http://www.sharpseating.com//Rose-Parade-Route.php or Call (626) 795-4171.