The world’s longest?
Crossposted from my weblog.
LAST Friday, I overheard somebody say this year’s military parade should already be the longest of its kind in the world.
According to Gil de la Torre of the Sanggunian secretariat, the parade involved more than 430 high school and college men and women contingents from all over Bikolandia — from the prominent ones like the marching units of the Naga City-based schools like UNC and the Ateneo, to the most distant public high schools who braved the heat and the long wait.
Why don’t we limit them? I asked Councilor Nathan Sergio early today. That would be difficult, he said. You’re talking about extraordinary commitment — every decision made to join the parade is not a spur-of-the-moment kind. It is made months before — kids, parents, teachers, trainors, school administrators and other bit players have to purchase their uniforms, train hard for the big day (and these would take months), wake up early, prepare logistical support, arrange transport et cetera just to be able to get their moment before the reviewing stand.
And you will deny a bid and everything that goes with it? That would be heartless.
According to reports, the parade started past 7 am and finished at around 4:30 pm — that’s nine straight hours! Rizza Mostar of ABS-CBN was announcing the winners just in time for TV Patrol-Bikol, and it was already dusk.
Wikipedia here has this to say on its entry on “Parade”:
The longest parade in the world is the “Marksmen’s Parade” and takes place in Hanover every year during the Schützenfest. The parade is 12 kilometres long with more than 12,000 participants from all over the world, among them more than 100 bands and around 70 floats and carriages.
Do the math, and I think the recent military parade has a fighting chance: At about 100 persons per contingent (three platoons of 21 each, plus officers, plus drum and bugle corps, plus the majorette squad), we’re talking of an upper limit of 43,000. The Hanover event, on the other hand, only had 12,000.
I’m not sure though about the length. Would anybody have an idea just how long would the 430 participating teams in the recent parade stretch?
Photo courtesy of the Naga.gov gallery
