St. Patrick’s Day is one of the biggest celebrations of the year. First, celebrated as a holy day in Ireland, it has turned into an all-out celebration of Irish heritage. Irish and non-Irish participants around the world join in the festivities by wearing green, eating green foods and drinking green beer, and proudly showing off their shamrocks and leprechauns. Everyone gets in on the action including pets and kids. The adorable t-shirt below is from Ashlyn Bowtique and the pet collar is from Lucky Fiona.
Parades are a big part of the celebration. They start the first weekend in March, in big and small cities and town around the country. Though large cities like Boston and New York have heavily-attended parades, tiny little Savannah, Georgia, is said to have the highest attendance of all the parades in the U.S. Savannah dyes their historic fountains green to drum up excitement before parade day.
Chicago, of course, is known for dying its entire river green. And even little known New London, Wisconsin, gets in on the celebration, changing its name to New Dublin for the week of St. Paddy’s day. This bag from Momo Ringo can be used all year round.
In Syracuse, NY, the Irish section called Tipperary Hill kicks off festivities on the first Sunday in March with delivery of the green beer to Coleman’s Irish Pub. At midnight, March 17th, they paint a shamrock below the ‘green on top’ light, which is an upside down traffic light at an intersection where green, still means go, but is the first light on top. These vintage-inspired blocks are from Gongy and Squish.
Growing up, we moved to a predominantly Irish neighborhood. I was 12 and it was my first introduction to corned beef and cabbage (Mrs. Kehoe made it for me) and claddagh rings (Stephanie McCabe had one) and many Irish blessings, songs (all learned from Joe Finn), and toasts. Though I’m Italian, 100%, it’s fun to be Irish-for-the-day.