Clydesdale draft horses pull a fire wagon as they enter the 1958 Rose Parade in Pasadena | Photo by Earl Leaf/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

What’s going on with the Rose Parade this year? Shouldn’t it be on the 1st of January? But it’s on Monday, January 2nd. What’s up with that?

Answer: Because January 1st happens to fall on Sunday this year. And way back in 1893 January 1st also fell on a Sunday. That’s when the “Never on Sunday” tradition began.

You see back then you could find a lot of horses hitched in front on churches along Colorado Boulevard. They were the common form of transportation for parishioners. So if a parade was going by with a lot of show horses, the hitched ponies would get frightened and agitated. Then the churchgoers would have to leave the services to attend to their horses. Like a car alarm going off.

Of course horses as daily transportation are no longer, but the Never on Sunday tradition has continued.

And so this year the Rose Parade will take place in all its equine glory on Monday, January 2nd.

Don’t you feel smart now?