Wolf Gnards

I’ve lived in Chicago almost 10 years and the one question that I keep asking myself over and over is what the hell parade are they at in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off? I’ve been to many a Chicago parade and none have seemed so fun, so happy, and so full of dance.

My first thought was the Chicago Gay Pride parade, which might explain the sudden outbreak of choreographed dance. However, the Pride parade takes place well after high school graduation and doesn’t run through downtown Chicago. It could be the St. Patrick’s Day parade, but the water isn’t green (Chicago dyes the river every year), and the crowd has a general lack of green… and beer.

As it turns out the parade in the film was an actual parade. John Hughes shot the scene during the Von Steuben Day parade with real by-standers, most of whom were surprised to see Matthew Broderick singing “Danke Schoen.” The Von Steuben Day parade is a German-American Parade (which explains the dancing German girls) that is held at the end of September. Problem is the movie doesn’t place in September. What we know is that the movie takes place toward the end of the school year (numerous mentions of graduating soon) and after baseball season has begun (hey-batter-batter-batter-swing-batter). This means Ferris Bueller’s Day Off takes place somewhere between the beginning of April and the middle of June.

Major holidays that fall between April and June include Easter, Secretary’s Day, National Day of Prayer, Mother’s Day, Armed Forces Day, Memorial Day, and Flag Day. Of these, there are actual Easter parades and Memorial Day parades. There’s also a Polish Constitution Day Parade that takes place in the beginning of May. The problem is the Easter, Memorial, and Polish Constitution Day parades all take are celebrated either on the a Saturday or Sunday, and since Ferris is taking a day off, these parades would be highly unlikely. Of the other holidays the only two to fall on a weekday in 1986 are Secretary’s Day and the National Day of Prayer.

So, unless there was some praying I missed in the film (Cameron did go to Egypt Land), I’d have to assume the parade in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off was a very special Secretary’s Day parade. Or the Abe Froman Memorial Meat Day parade. Or the Leopard Print Appreciation parade.