California Mayflower Society 2020 Rose Parade Participation Forms

about the mayflower Society
rose parade float

The Voyage of Hope - 1620

winner of the "Americana Award"!

Rose Parade® floats are like building a custom truck, each one unique and with its own set accessories. Each float includes a driver and observer, sometimes more that are needed for the animation and working parts.   The Voyage of Hope – 1620 will be about 55’ long and is limited to 18’ wide. The height must be able to collapse to 17’ to go under a freeway bridge along the route. That is not much space to tell the complete story, so we need to focus on the most important facts. Consider each as a vignette of the pilgrim story.

The Mayflower float includes several important icons to our pilgrim ancestors. The largest element, of course, is the Mayflower ship which will be about 45% of scale. She is not at full sail to show that she has arrived in Cape Cod and is resting in the harbor, with a few passengers remaining on board, and seagulls can be seen flying nearby.

A shallop is carrying some passengers to their new land, ably assisted by a crewman. Families of men, women, and children came seeking a new way of life. It is important to show this through our riders and walkers who accompany the float. Period-correct clothing to illustrate those who embarked on this voyage is essential.

Plymouth Rock stands proudly to welcome them. Of course the engraved year 1620 wasn’t on the rock at the time of the landing, but today’s visitors will recognize this feature, so it has been included on the float as a familiar icon. Next to Plymouth Rock is the Mayflower Compact. This foundational document was important, not only to the new colony, but would be the basis of the United States Constitution.

The front of the float is adorned with a bounty of vegetation. To those history buffs, we understand that when the landing occurred, it was winter and this is not entirely accurate, however, in keeping with the need to have floral material on the float, the bounty that what this country would provide to those who survived the first winter and the Pilgrim – Thanksgiving connection is important. The Committee received approval to include up to 18 float riders to illustrate the survivors.

There were numerous volunteers from around California from various Colonies, who gathered together to cut petals for the dry decorating. They did this for months. The week between Christmas and December 31st there were two shifts of up to 30 or 40 folks who painstakingly glued dried flowers, seeds, and many other types of vegetation, particularly all the beautiful flowers, to cover every square inch of the float. On 12/31, all of the riders donned their costumes and arrived early that morning to participate in the float judging with all of the other floats Fiesta Floats designed. It was our first opportunity to see the float fully decorated, with the masts fully elevated to conduct a dress rehearsal.   The "Voyage of Hope 1620" float won the "Americana Award", which is given to the float that is the best illustration of American History and Heritage. What an honor!

Surprisingly, the Mayflower Society "Voyage of Hope 1620" float turned out to be the ONLY National commemoration of the 400th Anniversary of the landing of the Pilgrims. We were supposed to be the kick-off of all of the 2020 commemoration events that had been long-planned around the country.   We could not have known it at the time, but just a little over three months after the parade on January 1st, 2020, the nation shut down nearly all activities from March 2020 through much of 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. All of the other planned events around the nation and in Plymouth, England had to be cancelled.

All the work we put into the float, from designing to decorating to sailing down Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena had to serve as the one opportunity for us to tell our Pilgrim story. In fact, because the nation was still locked down in January 2021, the 2020 Rose Parade was re-aired around the world. Hence, we were highlighted twice!   This effectively enabled us to commemorate the 400th Anniversary of Thanksgiving, which took place in November 2021. Two for the price of one!

For everyone who donated, purchased merchandise, helped us decorate the float, and rode on the Voyage of Hope 1620 float - Thank you!   We could not have done it without you all! We brought to life a beautiful commemoration of the Pilgrims and Pilgrim story. We done good!

If you would like to do some research about creating an accurate period Pilgrim outfit for you to wear to Mayflower Society events, please click the link below:

GUIDELINES FOR PERIOD CORRECT OUTFITS