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The 2010 Columbus Day Parade, the world’s largest celebration of Italian-American culture, kicks off in New York City today, October 11 at 11:30AM and runs down from Fifth Avenue at 47th Street, and continues north along Fifth Avenue to 79th Street.

This year's celebration features music and acts from Pinocchio, The Italian Musical. Over 100 bands, floats and contingents are expected to participate in the parade which should culminate until approximately 3:00 PM.

The Columbus Day Mass takes place at St. Patrick's Cathedral at 9:30AM.

Christopher Columbus was a navigator, colonizer, and explorer from the Republic of Genoa, in northwestern Italy, whose voyages across the Atlantic Ocean led to general European awareness of the American continents in the Western Hemisphere. With his four voyages of exploration and several attempts at establishing a settlement on the island of Hispaniola, all funded by Isabella I of Castile, he initiated the process of Spanish colonization which foreshadowed general European colonization of the "New World". The anniversary of Columbus's 1492 landing in the Americas is usually observed as Columbus Day on 12 October in Spain and throughout the Americas, except Canada. In the United States it is observed annually on the second Monday in October. (Wikipedia)

Big yes!!!