How to Celebrate St. Patrick's Day in Chicago

Chicago has some of the biggest and best St. Patrick's Day celebrations in the US.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• warm clothes as the parade is never cancelled.
• something green

1. Go to the St. Patrick's Day parade or both. Chicago has 2 parades, the Downtown parade takes place in 2009 on Saturday March 15th and the South Side parade takes places on Sunday. Both parades start at 12pm.

2. Watch the Chicago River dyed green. This is one of the world's most famous St. Patrick day traditions. The River is dyed green before the Downtown St. Patrick's day parade. In 2009 this takes place at 10:45am.

3. Eat and drink Irish food. Chicago has a number of Irish bars. One of the best bars to visit for St. Patrick's Day is Chief O'Neill's, situated at 3471 N. Elston. Each year they have 4 days of events leading up to St. Patrick's day that include Irish music, dancing and food.

4. Get some Irish culture. After the Downtown parade there is a wonderful family orientated Irish festival hosted by the Irish American Heritage Center. The festival has Irish gifts, crafts, food, dancing and live music.

[Foxility]

on 2/21/2009 I like how you write an article for individual cities... nice job

[Gardengates]

on 2/16/2009 Saint Patrick's day looks like a great excuse for taking a trip to Chicago. Thanks for the tips.