{"id":22388,"date":"2017-04-30T20:57:30","date_gmt":"2017-05-01T00:57:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/iaintjustmusic.bobleafe.com\/?p=22388"},"modified":"2025-01-05T09:45:34","modified_gmt":"2025-01-05T14:45:34","slug":"2025-our-lady-of-the-cloud-annual-january-1-procession","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iaintjustmusic.bobleafe.com\/?p=22388","title":{"rendered":"2025 – \u201cOur Lady of the Cloud\u201d Annual January 1 Procession"},"content":{"rendered":"

………………………………………………<\/span>(ignore April 30, 2017 publish date – this was published on January 5, 2025)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

………………..<\/span>(No, I’m not religious – or Ecuadorian – but this goes right by my building every New Year’s Day and it’s an interesting shoot)<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve seen this event every year since 2009. It began at around noon on that New Year\u2019s Day when I started hearing what sounded like a distant (and slightly off-tune) high-school band.<\/span><\/p>\n

Hangovers never did that to me before, so maybe it\u2019s real.<\/span><\/p>\n

Eventually, I located it just north of me on Anderson St. From my living room, I located a procession that started a cappella and then the horns took over in this very short video:<\/span><\/p>\n

https:\/\/youtu.be\/AO6HIaomLw4<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t know what it was, but since I saw a Hackensack police car trailing it, I called the HPD to find out what it was.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cA funeral\u201d and they immediately hung up.<\/span><\/p>\n

The next day, there was a picture of what I saw in the paper with this explanation:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cEcuadorians, in a New Year tradition, making a procession with a figure of the Virgin Mary on Maple Avenue in Hackensack leading to a festival at Holy Trinity Church\u201d<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cFuneral\u201d, huh?<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

A 1-1-10 video failed and the 1-1-11 pictures are missing.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I have one picture that I took on 1-1-12 that shows they made a left onto Main St:<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I remembered from that 2009 newspaper description that they then made the next left onto Maple Ave, where Holy Trinity Church is located and that\u2019s where the procession ended (it had started a few blocks west of me in the parking lot of an Ecuadorian restaurant).<\/span><\/p>\n

Altogether, they endured about a 7-block-long hike.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In 2013, I went to that strip-mall restaurant to see them getting ready:<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\" \"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It was gonna be a while before they stepped-off, so I went home, where I later heard their distinctive sounds. I went out on to my roof to see where they were headed.<\/span><\/p>\n

This was gonna be a short one. From the restaurant, they walked 3+ blocks down Anderson St to Pangborn Place, which is Holy Trinity\u2019s side street. They then made a left (see pic). Total distance: 4+ blocks:<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

2014, 2015<\/u><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

No pix! (No procession?)<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

BIG changes in 2016! Total revamp!<\/span><\/p>\n

Same lot starting point, different exit point (one block south – Passaic St). What I particularly liked was that they then made a left onto Union St\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026MY street. Ever since 2016, the procession has passed by my building.<\/span><\/p>\n

The procession looked (and sounded) very different in 2016 – much brighter with very unusual dancing characters, like this one:<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

2017 was even stranger. I only shot a video that year that you have to see to believe. When you click on the video, make sure you read the story before you click on \u201cWatch on YouTube\u201d. When you get there, pump up the volume and hit the full-screen icon:<\/span><\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.hackensacknow.org\/index.php\/topic,3474.0.html<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

What I shot in subsequent years (nothing in 2021 and 2023) are just variations shot from my roof\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026UNTIL 2025, when I decided I wanted street shots of the procession passing my building (similar to the shot I took 10 days earlier from across the street of a camel with my building in the background as he passed by).<\/span><\/p>\n

But this time, I wanted to see the preparation that I assumed took place at Holy Trinity Church, because that\u2019s where the procession usually begins.<\/span><\/p>\n

Since it usually begins around noon, I walked over to the church between 11:30 and 11:45am\u2026\u2026\u2026..<\/span><\/p>\n

Nada.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

There were some familiar-looking vehicles parked on the street, but everyone must be still inside the church. Was Mass running late?<\/span><\/p>\n

I decided to take a long walk around the block. When I got back to the church\u2026..<\/span><\/p>\n

Nada.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I took a few pictures of some familiar-looking vehicles to see if they\u2019d show up later in the procession. Two of the three did:<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\" \"\" \"\"<\/p>\n

(BTW – \u201cReina\u201d means \u201cQueen\u201d and I don\u2019t think the third vehicle made it to the Trump Hotel in Las Vegas later that day\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026at least I hope not.)<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Time to go home for lunch.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I later decided to wait until I heard the first \u201chigh school band\u201d notes before going out again. Sure enough, I heard them coming from a couple of blocks south of me on Union St. They had changed their route a few years ago to I-have-no-idea-what, but the end was the same: Union to Anderson to Pangborn to the church, so it would be passing my building in about 10 minutes.<\/span><\/p>\n

So out I went.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

And here they came, led by a familiar vehicle (click most of these to enlarge):<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> \"\" \"\"<\/a> \"\" \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Click this one twice<\/span> to fully-enlarge. The panning process has distorted a couple of faces in the lower right:<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Here’s that familiar-looking truck (that we saw earlier) bringing up the rear:<\/span>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

No crazy music\/dancers\/costumes! All serious (except for the yawner)! I wonder when that change occurred\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The procession was now past my building and starting to make a left onto Anderson St (click to enlarge):<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\u2026.and who are those two people hugging to the right of center? Hint: they\u2019ve been there a couple of months (and I\u2019m told they won\u2019t be there much longer).<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I cut across the park diagonally, taking a couple more pictures:<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\" \"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Finally, I\u2019m at the corner of Anderson and Pangborn as Mother and Son are about to make a right turn and head to the church where I was baptized:<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Next to make that right turn is the truck we saw 14 pictures ago parked outside of the church:<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

So the two trucks that looked familiar were the head and tail of the procession.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Time to start that long one-block hike home and start putting all this together.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

And that\u2019s how I spent New Year\u2019s Day, 2025.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

………………………………………………(ignore April 30, 2017 publish date – this was published on January 5, 2025)   ………………..(No, I’m not religious – or Ecuadorian – but this goes right by my building every New Year’s Day and it’s an interesting shoot) I\u2019ve seen this event every year since 2009. It began at around noon on that New […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22388","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iaintjustmusic.bobleafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22388","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iaintjustmusic.bobleafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iaintjustmusic.bobleafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iaintjustmusic.bobleafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iaintjustmusic.bobleafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22388"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/iaintjustmusic.bobleafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22388\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22426,"href":"https:\/\/iaintjustmusic.bobleafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22388\/revisions\/22426"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iaintjustmusic.bobleafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iaintjustmusic.bobleafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iaintjustmusic.bobleafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}