Tag Archives: Fourth of July

July 10, 2026

2026 Hampton Ponds Fourth of July Parade (Hampton Ponds, Westfield, MA)

Date of Event: Jul4, 2026

Location: Hampton Ponds, Westfield, MA (2 hours southwest of Boston, MA)

Summary: Westfield, MA, celebrated the 250th anniversary of America’s independence with a family friendly extravaganza!

Westfield, MA, kicked off their 4th of July celebrations with their annual parade. The parade featured horses, vintage cars and lots of fun for the entire family!

Since this is the 250th anniversary of the celebration of the country’s independence, they really pulled out all the stops. Parade participants threw candy, necklaces with stars and other gifts to the people at the parade.

For those of you who may be from around the area, the 18 minute parade winded down a mile route from Hampton Ponds on East Mountain Rd to Froggy’s Saloon on Airport Industrial Park Rd.

People rode many modes of transportation during the parade from horses to bicycles and some other fancy vehicles.

But, my favorite vehicle from the parade was the DeLorean (aka as Marty McFly’s time traveling car) Flux Capacitor and hat from the sequel included!

Meanwhile, some participants chose to walk along the parade route.

There was also lots of music at the event!

If you look closely at the photos, you can see just how everyone at the parade was so happy. It was a very rewarding experience seeing and capturing people’s smiles. We need more events like this where people can just come together and enjoy these moments.

Attached are videos from the parade! Feel free to peruse my other videos on my YouTube channel.

8 Comments | tags: cars, Fourth of July, horses, Massachusetts, New England, parade, photographs, Photography, photos | posted in Massachusetts, New England, parade, photographs, photography, photos, Westfield

July 3, 2026

Happy 250th! (Old Sturbridge Village, Sturbridge, MA)

By New England Nomad

Date Of Visit: July, 4, 2025

Location: Old Sturbridge Village, Sturbridge, MA

Summary scores of people became naturalized citizens last year at Sturbridge Village

As we celebrate the 250th anniversary of American independence, I thought I would share some poignant photos from a visit to Old Sturbridge Village last year. These citizens were so proud and happy to experience something many of us take for granted. It was one of my most fun events to photograph because of the effervescent atmosphere of the people being sworn in as citizens. It’s great to see people happy in any environment, especially at an event with so much meaning.

Each 4th of July, the village conducts citizenship ceremonies. Last July 4th 146 people from 36 countries became citizens during their Naturalization Ceremonies. Since I will not be able to attend the ceremony this year, I thought I would share some photos from last year’s ceremony.

Because of a very busy schedule and some personal changes in my life including selling my home last year and moving to western MA, I have yet to edit all of the photos from this year and most of last year for that matter. But, what better time to post these photos of such a special event. I do hope to post more photos of this event in a future post.

As I was processing these photos, I was overwhelmed by how happy, no elated, these new citizens were to be Americans. And, while it’s often hard to get approval to use people’s photos for posts, these people were more than willing to pose and show their pride for their new citizenship. Congratulations to the these new citizens and to future citizens of this country.