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Syndication: Savannah Morning News
(New York, NY) — Millions in green are celebrating St Patrick’s Day in New York City. Today is the 264th St. Patrick’s Day Parade along Fifth Avenue. Bars are packed with New Yorkers and tourists celebrating. One New York Irish pub says it will go through 10,000 pounds of corned beef along with truckloads of beer.
New York’s annual St Patrick’s Day parade is the largest and oldest in the nation. There are 150-thousand people taking part. The grand marshal is Michael Benn, the longtime chairman of the Queens County St. Patrick’s Parade Committee in the Rockaways.
We celebrate all things Irish by wearing green. But why? There’s a lot of lore regarding leprechauns, a mythical creature said to go around pinching people not wearing green. There’s also a belief that wearing green on St. Patrick’s Day is rooted in the color having become a symbol of Irish identity and resistance against British rule in the 1700s.
