Skip to content
Photos
Link copied to clipboard
Link copied to clipboard

Polish American pride on parade in Philadelphia

The 86th Pulaski Day Parade in Philadelphia included hundreds of marchers from Polish American churches, cultural organizations, folk dance and song groups, and Polish language schools.

Alicja Iwaniwucz (from left), 7; and sisters Julia Guzdziol, 10 and Emilia Guzdziol, 8, lead their families and classmates from the Polish school at Saint Hedwig church in Trenton, in the 86th annual Pulaski Day Parade on the Ben Franklin Parkway October 6, 2019.
Alicja Iwaniwucz (from left), 7; and sisters Julia Guzdziol, 10 and Emilia Guzdziol, 8, lead their families and classmates from the Polish school at Saint Hedwig church in Trenton, in the 86th annual Pulaski Day Parade on the Ben Franklin Parkway October 6, 2019.Read moreTOM GRALISH / Staff Photographer

The 86th annual Pulaski Day Parade on the Parkway on Sunday celebrated the history, culture and pride of the Polish American community in Philadelphia and honored Revolutionary War hero Gen. Casimir Pulaski.

Hundreds of Polish American members of churches, cultural organizations, folk dance and song groups, and Polish language schools marched.

The parade also marked the 411th year since Polish settlers first came to America. Invited to establish a glass industry in the colonies, the Polish craftsmen arrived in Jamestown, Va., in October 1608 — 12 years before the pilgrims. They opened a glassblowing shop, which became the first American industry to produce commercial items exported from America to Europe.

Gen. Pulaski, considered the father of the U.S. cavalry, was born in Poland in 1745 and came to America to join the fight for independence. He was commissioned as a brigadier general and his cavalry first defended Minisink Island in the Delaware River, and Little Egg Harbor in New Jersey, before being dispatched to the South. On Oct. 9, 1779, during the Battle of Savannah, Pulaski was mortally wounded by a cannon blast while charging into battle on horseback.