St. Patrick’s Day In Downtown Chicago

St. Patrick’s Day is a big deal in the city of Chicago! Being from out of town, I had no idea just how crazy this city gets to celebrate the day of the Irish! My friends and I had plans to go downtown this past Saturday to the St. Patrick’s Day parade all year, but when we finally got there, I was not expecting just how large and amazing this holiday is celebrated in Chicago!

The morning of the parade, we got up extra early, decked ourselves out in all green, and headed downtown. The first thing I noticed was how crazy the CTA was that morning! My car on the L was completely full of college kids all dressed in green and heading to the parade. It was probably the most eventful and entertaining L ride I’ve ever taken to date! Once we finally made it into the heart of the city, I was in awe of just the sheer number of people everywhere you look wearing green! The city was painted in a sea of green. Soon, we found a good place to watch the parade near Columbus Street, although with all of the people surrounding us, I really couldn’t see anything. I could hear the bagpipes though, which was exciting!

We decided to leave the parade a little early to get a good glimpse of the river that had been dyed green earlier that day. When we finally arrived at the edge of the river, I was amazed at how neon green the water was! It was truly an amazing sight!

With the amount of events and people dressed in green I saw on Saturday, there is no doubt that Chicago takes this holiday very seriously, regardless of if anyone is actually Irish or not! Since I am Irish, it was extremely fun to actually celebrate this holiday in a big city with millions of other people with fun green activities. I would definitely attend the parade every year, even if I couldn’t see anything. Next year, we will just try for a better spot! If you haven’t attended this big event, I definitely recommend attending next year. You will not regret it. It’s an amazing and super fun experience to do with friends!