Saint Patrick’s Day – Parades and “Patrick’s Pot”
Saint Patrick’s Day – Is it a day of family fun, celebratory Mass, colorful parades, Celtic music, traditional Irish dancing, and green, green everywhere – or is it drinking and debauchery? The answer is … both.
This Saint’s day is wonderfully all-inclusive - for saints and sinners! In the days and sometimes weeks surrounding March 17, we all celebrate our Irish roots – real or imagined! Everyone, real Paddies, Plastic Paddies and Paddie wannabees, celebrates – one way or the other, or both.
Why is Saint Patrick’s Day so popular? Because around 15% of us are Plastic Paddy’s – descendents of the Famine Irish who immigrated to America in massive numbers during the great Irish Famine of 1845-1850 and who lived in great poverty, in deplorable conditions, and endured intense discrimination. Yet, they survived it all, rising one generation at a time to success, prominence, and assimilation. Saint Patrick’s Day celebrates the pride of that achievement and deeply rooted cultural heritage.
For these celebrants, it’s a time of tradition, honored in special Masses and heralded in festive parades where clans proudly wear their colors and Irish bands perform. Families in huge numbers line the streets of cities with a deep Irish heritage, cities like Chicago, New York, Boston, Savannah, to listen to bagpipes, enjoy marching bands, marvel at the flying feet of traditional Irish dance groups. Irish bands perform on street stages set up along the way, there’s dancing in the street, and the strains of Celtic folk music is everywhere. Brigades of neon green fire trucks rumble by and even Irish Setters and Irish Wolfhounds strut their stuff and. It’s festive and fun!
In these cities, everything paint-able turns green; anything remotely Irish is on display. Shamrocks fly proudly on flags and are pasted on windows; people wear green creations; green beads are thrown from floats by leprechauns of all shapes and sizes; fountains and even rivers run green!
Crowds line up to get into Irish pubs to down Guinness Stout as well as other creations, mixed especially for the occasion, some green – The Frogger, The Dancing Leprechaun, the Dublin Handshake, the Irish Car Bomb - or Irish brews, by the pint – Guinness, Murphy’s, Harp, dark or light. Corned beef and cabbage and shepherd’s pie are on every restaurant menu, Irish or not.
Boston has the distinction of being the first city to celebrate the Irish, way back in 1737. Here, the parade is always on the Sunday before the actual Saint’s day. This year it’s on March 15 from 1-5pm in South Boston, the most Irish of Irish neighborhoods, and it’s filled with tradition and fun.
Savannah’s parade, the 2 nd largest in the country, was first held in 1813, and the luck of the Irish still shines. Savannah’s celebration lasts a month and it’s big! It’s kicked off by the Savannah Irish Festival in mid-February, and Irish-themed events go on throughout town, culminating in the parade on March 17. The Greening of the Fountain in Forsyth Park is the first of the March events. The water flowing from the impressively beautiful fountain in Savannah’s biggest park is green, as is the water in all of the many other fountains within Savannah city limits. This Saturday, March 14, Emmet Park at the east end of Bay Street is transformed into the Emerald Isle during Tara Feis Irish Celebration. A real crowd pleaser, the setting is wonderful and the entertainment spectacular. There are continuous live performances by well-known Celtic groups, traditional Irish bands, including this year’s headliners, Cherish The Ladies. For kids, there’s music, dance, the telling of wonderful Irish folktales, and lots of food. The day of the grand finale, the big parade, begins with a celebration of Mass in the Cathedral of John the Baptist.
Green Chicago River
The New York City and the Chicago parades tie for first in terms of attendance, nearly 2 million each! Chicago’s starts at noon on Saturday, March 14, just after the much anticipated Dyeing of the Chicago River – green, of course.
Marching for the 248 th consecutive year is the New York City Saint Patrick’s Day Parade, which has the honor of being reviewed by His Eminence Cardinal Edward Egan, Archbishop of New York, from the steps of Saint Patrick’s Cathedral. As the nation’s first recorded parade (1762), this one is pure pageantry and tradition as politicians, proud clans, Irish nationalist societies, and police and firemen walk the route along 5 th Avenue, from 44 to 86 streets.
This is the traditional side of Saint Patrick’s Day.
Then there’s the revelry. For these celebrants, be they true Irish, those with a wee bit of Irish, or those without a drop of Irish blood, it’s party time!
They dress in wild green outfits, don a silly hats with a glittery shamrock pasted on the front, paint their faces green and nails green, wear green wigs, and partake in things Saint Patrick never envisioned – pub crawls and all-night drinking in Irish and not-so-Irish places. In some cities, entire streets are closed allowing revelers to walk from bar to bar and mingle with green-tinted spirits in plastic cups. We do this without really knowing why.
Where’s the connection? The shamrock and the green first: As legend has it, St. Patrick wore a shamrock to explain the Holy Trinity to the Irish pagans he was trying to convert to Christianity. Green is also said to be the color of growth, renewal, and abundance, and with spring just around the corner, why not celebrate!
And the drinking part? Blame it on Pota Phadraig or Patrick’s Pot, also the stuff of legend. As the story goes, while visiting an inn during his travels, Patrick was served a glass of whiskey which was less than full, and he saw his chance to teach the lesson of generosity. He told the innkeeper that a devil lived in his cellar who fed off his dishonesty and in order to get rid of the cellar-dwelling devil the innkeeper had to change his ways. When Patrick returned to the inn, the keeper was gladly filling his patrons’ glasses to the brim. Patrick found the devil emaciated from the landlord’s generosity and banished him. Thereafter, St. Patrick proclaimed that everyone should have a drop of whiskey on his feast day.
So today, hordes of people line up ready to partake in Pota Phadraig, not by the drop, but by the gulp. St. Patty’s “Luck of the Irish” Pub Crawl 2009 in New York City is as advertised: three days of wearing green and drinking cheap beer – over 5 miles, 3 days and 100 bars! Looking something not quite as roudy? Make the rounds of top 5 Irish pubs in New York.
Boston revelers take over on March 17, at about 5pm. Huge lines queue up at bars, Irish or not, all over the city, and a lot of drinks go down in places like the Black Rose, arguably the most famous Boston Irish bar, Hurricane O’Reilly’s, Purple Shamrock, Green Dragon Tavern, Coogan’s, Clery’s, Tiernan’s Irish Pub, Kitty O’Shea’s, Ned Divine’s, and any bar in and around Fanuiel Hall and on Union Street. This is the time to try the top 10 Irish beers.
Savannah’s City Market is the scene of constant activity – bars and more bars; bands and more bands. This year, the first Battle of the Bagpipes is happening in front of Molly McPherson’s, with guests pipers from the NYC Police and Fire Department, Ireland, Boston – and more. This may get wild and crazy with all those guys in kilts! And, as if this were not enough, the length of River Street is closed off for the plastic to-go-cup brigade, and a stop at Kevin Barry’s is a must.
Regardless of where you are, celebrate to your liking with gusto. Listen to Celtic music, attend a special mass, watch a parade. Wear a touch of green, bring green bagels to work, try corned beef and cabbage, And just maybe, partake in Pota Phadraig. Saint Patrick said it was OK.
