There is said to be an old superstition which held that wearing new clothes at Easter time meant good luck for the remainder of the year (does this mean that the three months or so prior to Easter were just awful?). Starting in the mid-1800's, upper-class New Yorkers exiting the grand churches along Fifth Avenue would parade and promenade their finery. From such elitist beginnings (as well as the 1948 Judy Garland film Easter Parade), comes the present-day Fifth Avenue Easter Parade, which is decidedly wackier and looser.