Congratulations, We Can Have Green Parades Again

'Psychologically, it means a lot,' says NYC parade organizer as St. Paddy's Day events return
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Mar 17, 2022 4:24 AM CDT
Updated Mar 17, 2022 5:45 AM CDT
St. Patrick's Day Celebrations Return After 2-Year Hiatus
Mayor Lori Lightfoot marches in a kilt for the St. Patrick's Day Parade along South Columbus Drive Saturday, March 12, 2022, in Chicago.   (John J. Kim/Chicago Tribune via AP)

St. Patrick’s Day celebrations across the country are back after a two-year hiatus, including the nation’s largest in New York City, in a sign of growing hope that the worst of the pandemic may be over. The holiday served as a key marker in the outbreak's progression, with parades celebrating Irish heritage among the first big public events to be called off in 2020, the AP reports. An ominous acceleration in infections quickly cascaded into broad shutdowns. The full-fledged return of New York’s parade on Thursday coincides with the city’s wider reopening. Major mask and vaccination rules were recently lifted.

"Psychologically, it means a lot," says Sean Lane, the chair of the parade’s organizing group. “New York really needs this." The city's entertainment and nightlife scenes have particularly welcomed the return to a normal St. Patrick's Day party. "This is the best thing that happened to us in two years," says Mike Carty, the Ireland-born owner of Rosie O’Grady’s, a restaurant and pub in the Theater District. Celebrations are back in other cities, too. Over the weekend, Chicago dyed its river green, after doing so without much fanfare last year and skipping the tradition altogether during the initial virus onslaught. Boston, home to one of the country’s largest Irish enclaves, is resuming its annual parade Sunday after a two-year absence.

New York’s parade—the largest and oldest of them all, first held in 1762—starts at 11am and runs 35 blocks along Fifth Avenue, past St. Patrick’s Cathedral and Central Park. This year's parade is two years in the making, after token processions during the pandemic. To keep the tradition going, organizers in 2020 and 2021 quietly held small parades on St. Patrick's Day, right around sunrise, when the streets were empty. Organizers hope people will turn out this year not just to commemorate the holiday, but to honor the first responders who helped the city get through the pandemic, as well as in support of a delegation of Ukrainian marchers bringing attention to the war in their homeland. (More St. Patrick's Day stories.)

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