This day in history: 2 Lilac parades in downtown Spokane combined. Metaphysician promised instantaneous healing at Moose Hall

From 1975: The Lilac Parades, plural, would now be the Torchlight-Armed Forces Parade, singular.

For the past 17 years, two parades were held during the Lilac Festival: the Lilac Armed Forces Parade in the daytime and the Torchlight Parade in the evening.

Dwindling attendance for the daytime parade – and the high cost of staging two parades – coaxed the festival association to consolidate the parades into one spectacle. The Armed Forces theme would be added to the Torchlight theme.

This new arrangement was bound to make downtown businesses happy. Two weeks earlier they had requested the change because the daytime parade “cut into sales.”

The Armed Forces Torchlight Parade remains a popular springtime event in Spokane.

From 1925: An ad in the Spokane Daily Chronicle touted the upcoming appearance of Swami Rai Mohan Dutta, a “master psychologist and metaphysician,” skilled in the “time tested wisdom of the masters.”

His free shows at the Moose Hall would demonstrate “the power of the omnipotent mind, the conscious control of the subconscious mind … and scientific spiritual healing.”

The ad promised “mind-reading, name-analysis, and instantaneous healing.” Attendees would be taught to “create the things you desire and gain knowledge and power from cosmic consciousness.”