Rose Parade 2014: What will the theme of the 125th parade be?

Guessing at Rose Parade themes is even iffier than guessing who the Grand Marshal will be. After all, a theme is usually a phrase and with more than 1 million words in the English language according to languagemonitor.com, there’s an uncountable number of ways to put them together to create a theme.

In the 90 years that the Rose Parade has had a theme (the first 28 years and seven years in the 1920s had no theme), there has never been a repeat, though some of the themes are pretty synonymous. “Hats Off to Entertainment” and “Entertainment on Parade,” for example, or “Music Music Music” and “The Joy of Music.” All are broad enough to allow a wide variety of float designs, which is useful because designers start working on the next parade before the current one even lines up on Orange Grove Blvd.

R. Scott Jenkins, Tournament of Roses president for the 2014 Rose Parade, will announce his choice of theme on Jan. 18, the same day his presidency is publicly confirmed. So let’s have a little fun: What do you think the 2014 Rose Parade theme will be? Just a general category is fine! Tell us in the comments below.

Here are some pointers:

• 2014 will be the 125th Rose Parade, the 100th Rose Bowl Game, and the 90th Tournament of Roses to have a theme
• Recurring categories, so to speak, are dreams/imagination, family/children, music/entertainment, world/America/travel. In 1944-1946 and 1918 and 1919, the themes centered around the wars and victory. It’s doubtful that will be a 2014 theme!
• Themes often leave room for metaphorical or humorous interpretations. “Oh, the Places You’ll Go!” in 2013 brought forth designs that portrayed literal places, such as Rotary’s “All the Places We Go!” illustrating their worldwide reach; Cal Poly’s “Tuxedo Air” which gave viewers a bevy of air-traveling penguins; and South Pasadena’s “Sailing the Sea of Knowledge,” a ship sailing on the open pages of a book.
• The most popular themes incorporated “…in Flowers,” the phrase having been used 22 times, mostly in the early years, but not since 1967. That the Rose Parade is “in flowers” is probably pretty much taken for granted.

R. Scott Jenkins sent out some hints to float builders to help in their design process. “Dreams” seems to be the key word.

• 2014 will mark the 125th anniversary of the Rose Parade and the 100th Rose Bowl Game.
• New Year’s Day represents a fresh start for each person, and the theme reminds us of the optimism we can and should bring forth in our lives and actions.
• We can attain the seemingly unattainable through focus, effort and the belief in the probability of success.
• Believing in the power of our dreams allows us to achieve what might seem impossible.
• Dreams come in all sizes, and regardless of size, dreams fuel the stores of our lives.
• The imagery of fantasy, sports, family, adventure, art, education and community, or the celebration of events that have had and are still having global impact can all be expressed through the prism of Dreams…

So take a guess. Tell us in the comments or post on Facebook at All Things Rose Parade. Dream something up!

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