Yesterday I had the privilege of attending the Marche Pour Jesus (March for Jesus) in Paris. The parade had 6 or 7 different trucks with bands playing live music, and each truck had a crowd behind it. The lead truck was playing a very diverse collection of music that had been organized ahead of time. They also handed out the words to everybody before the march so even if we hadn't practiced up ahead of time (like me) we could follow along.
All of the trucks after that played whatever came to their minds at the moment. So after about an hour behind the main truck I started drifting backwards through the parade. I danced along for a little while behind the second truck, which was vibrating African rhythms, and then joined the "Juifs pour Jesus" (Jews for Jesus) who were waving banners and blowing shofars behind a much smaller truck. I skipped the Brazilian truck because I don't speak a word of Portuguese and joined up with another couple hundred vigorous dancers near the end of the parade. I think there were about 5 of us white folks in that crowd. It was fun.
I think my favorite people where a dozen or so Indians (You can see their flag in the photo above). They were behind the main truck but they were far enough back that you couldn't hear the truck very well. That was convenient because you COULD hear the Indians VERY well. All they had was a tambourine and their voices but they kept up the music coming at full energy for the entire 3 hours. It was a fun mix of French, some Indian language I don't know, and English. They usually started a song in English or Indian, then switched it into French. Sometimes I'm pretty sure they were doing the translation on the fly.
The theme song for the event is HERE
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