Events
St. Patrick's Day Parade
The Greater Rochester Irish Center will be marching again in the 2008 Rochester St. Patrick's Day Parade.
• Start time: 12:30 pm.
• Date:
Saturday March 15th, '08
• Where: Starting at East Ave and Alexander St.
We would like to invite anyone interested in marching with us to contact the Greater Rochester Irish Center at gricadmin@gmail.com.
We had a great turn out last year and we are always looking for more of the Irish community and those with Irish envy to enjoy marching with us. Marching is always a lot of fun and we would love to have you all come out and experience St. Patrick’s Day in a whole new way. This year’s theme “The Spirit of St. Patrick” will focus on the origin and history of the parade in Rochester and across the United States.
The Greater Rochester Irish Center will be in division 2 that begins with Johnny's Irish Pub and ends Savannah Cellars. GRIC will be the 7th group in the division behind the Greater Rochester Emerald Society and in front of Ireland's 32. You can download the .pdf of the entire parade line up by going to rochesterparade.com.
For those who will be marching with us meet us at East Avenue near Alexander Street. You can meet us anytime after 11:30 am, look for the guy in the green kilt with a black GRIC shirt on.
St. Patrick's Day
Saint Patrick's Day is celebrated worldwide by Irish people and increasingly by non-Irish people, as well (usually in Australia, North America, and Ireland). Hence the phrase, "Everyone wants to be Irish on St. Patrick's Day." Celebrations are generally themed around the color green and all things Irish; both Christians and non-Christians celebrate the secular version of the holiday by wearing green or orange, eating Irish food and/or green foods, imbibing Irish drink (usually Guinness), and attending parades.
The St. Patrick's Day parade in Dublin, Ireland is part of a five-day festival; over 500,000 people attended the 2006 parade. The largest St. Patrick's Day parade is held in New York City and it is watched by over 2 million spectators. The St. Patrick's Day parade was first held in Boston in 1737, organized by the Charitable Irish Society. New York's celebration began on 17 March 1762 when Irish soldiers in the British army marched through the city. The predominantly French-speaking Canadian city of Montréal, in the province of Québec is the oldest Saint Patrick's day parade in North America. The city's flag has the Irish emblem, the shamrock, in one of its corners. Ireland's cities all hold their own parades and festivals. These cities include Dublin, Cork, Belfast, Derry, Galway, Kilkenny, Limerick, and Waterford. Parades also take place in other Irish towns and villages.
