Festival rites: parades, bagpipes, clinking pints
From New York City to Savannah, Georgia, to the halls of the White House, thousands of people in the U.S. celebrated St. Patrick's Day with parades, pub crawls and a state visit.
Thousands of tourists and locals alike crowded the oak-shaded squares and downtown sidewalks of Savannah on Friday. The city's parade, a 199-year-old tradition, is the South's largest.
Veteran parade watchers arrived before dawn to claim space in the squares for picnic tables and party tents.
The annual parade in New York City — which bills itself as the world's largest and oldest — drew throngs to Fifth Avenue to await bagpipes and bands, and give homage to Ireland's patron saint.
Irish immigrants have a deep history in helping New York City become what it is today — one of the many groups, the mayor said, “that make up our city and
Julie Hensley pumps her fist as her friend Ally Womble guzzles her drink during the St. Patrick's Day parade Friday in downtown Savannah, Ga.
that makes us great.”
Kevin Conway, the parade's grand marshal, led the way.
Bernadette Byrne, who took in the parade while visiting from Ireland, felt right at home.
“The atmosphere is great,” she said. “Everybody's so friendly.”
In Portland, Oregon, the city's oldest Irish bar was in hot pursuit of a Guinness — not the famed Irish beer but what they hope will be a world record for the biggest Irish coffee ever brewed: 264 gallons of it.
Some cities, including Boston, will hold parades and other festivities this weekend. Other cities including Chicago, which dyes its river green to commemorate a day when everyone pretends to be Irish, already held their parades last weekend.
On Friday, the fountain on the South Lawn of the White House also flowed green as President Joe Biden, who often speaks of his Irish heritage, welcomed Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar. T
In Savannah, temperatures were springlike, in the mid-70s. Fittingly, many parade watchers wore shorts with green T-shirts and strands of green plastic beads.
Mike Trout painted his entire face and bald head with green makeup, accented by an orange plastic mustache.
Started in 1824 by Irish immigrants to Georgia's oldest city, the St. Patrick's Day parade in Savannah has ballooned into one of the South's largest street parties after Mardi Gras.