Parades scrapped, but Irish spirits high
St. Paddy celebrations alter concepts globally
BOSTON — St. Patrick’s Day revelers across the world tried to salvage the holiday with makeshift celebrations after parades and parties were scrapped and residents were urged to hunker down at home to slow the spread of the new coronavirus.
It was the first St. Patrick’s Day in more than 250 years without a large parade in New York City, but a small group marched the rain-soaked streets early Tuesday anyway — observing “social distancing,” they said — to keep the tradition alive.
Led by police cars with flashing lights, people in uniforms and sashes marched Fifth Avenue before dawn with a banner and flags as bagpipe music played. The march wasn’t advertised, and the sidewalks were largely empty.
In Savannah, Georgia, which canceled its parade for the first time in 99 years, there were no bagpipers, no cheering crowds — just two men in green blazers carrying a large Irish flag as they trudged along largely abandoned sidewalks.
“It’s really strange,” said Bill Bradley, carrying the flag on its long wooden pole. “It’s almost like a dream, like living in some kind of nightmare.” Bradley and his friend John Lowenthal, members of one of Savannah’s Irish social societies, opted to walk the parade route on their own.
There were virtually no signs of revelry in Chicago, which scrapped the nearly 60-year-old tradition of dyeing the Chicago River green in order to keep crowds away.
After having to postpone shows in Boston, American Celtic punk band The Dropkick Murphys hoped to spread Irish cheer to those holed up in their homes with a concert that will be livestreamed Tuesday night on Youtube, Instagram and Facebook.
“We’re gonna play it like there are people in front of us, at level 10,” singer and bassist Ken Casey of the band, known for its popular song “I’m Shipping Up To Boston,” told WBUR.
Neighbors in some communities organized “Shamrock Scavenger Hunts” on social media to give kids whose schools are shuttered something fun to do. Residents were told to hang a shamrock in their window so kids could go around the neighborhood and spot the shamrocks while keeping a safe distance from one another.