Thursday, March 10, 2011

Chicago Webcam Feed Live at St Patrick's Day River Dying and Parade

Chicago dyes its river green and has done so since 1962 when sewer workers used green dye to check for sewer discharges and had the idea to turn the river green for Saint Patrick's Day. Originally 100 pounds of vegetable dye was used to turn the river green for a whole week but now only forty pounds of dye is used and the colour only lasts for several hours.

This live feed is in Chicago for the river dying and the following parade:

St Patrick's Day Chicago Live Feed

Scheduled for 10:00 am, Saturday March 12th, the dyeing can be best viewed from the East side of the Michigan Avenue bridge, the West side of the Columbus Drive bridge or upper and lower Wacker Drive between Michigan Avenue and Columbus Drive.

Following this, the St Patrick's Day parade starts at Balbo and Columbus. The parade units will proceed north on Columbus Drive and the viewing stand will be located in front of Buckingham Fountain.

St Patrick's Day:

Little is known of Patrick's early life, though it is known that he was born in Roman Britain in the 4th century, into a wealthy Romano-British family. His father and grandfather were deacons in the Church. At the age of sixteen, he was kidnapped by Irish raiders and taken captive to Ireland as a slave. It is believed he was held somewhere on the west coast of Ireland, possibly Mayo, but the exact location is unknown. According to his Confession, he was told by God in a dream to flee from captivity to the coast, where he would board a ship and return to Britain. Upon returning, he quickly joined the Church in Auxerre in Gaul and studied to be a priest.

Saint Patrick's Day San Franciso 2011 Live Parade Webcam Feed

San Francisco’s Saint Patrick’s Day parade is the largest one west of the Mississippi. There has been a St. Patrick's Day celebration in San Francisco since 1852, and the tradition continues to this day.

This live feed is in San Francisco for the 2011 St Patrick's Day parade:

San Francisco St Patrick's Day Live Webcam

Event Information:

San Francisco has always had a large Irish American population and for many decades Irish Americans were the largest ethnic group in San Francisco. However, as of the early 21st century, the largest ethnic group in San Francisco is Chinese Americans and most of the Irish Americans have moved to the suburban parts of the San Francisco Bay Area. Each year, however, Irish from all over the San Francisco Bay Area come into San Francisco to march in or to see the Saint Patrick's Day parade march down Market Street, held the Sunday before St. Patrick's Day. Numerous people from all ethnic groups can be seen wearing green in San Francisco on St. Patrick's Day.San Francisco’s 160th Annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade and Festival will draw thousands of people to the streets of San Francisco on March 12, 2011.

The event will provide plenty of Irish history, cultural clichés, and a full day of fun and festivities, including live performances, arts, crafts, food and drinks. Bring the kids so they can ride the ponies, play on inflatables, and enjoy the petting zoo.

Denver Webcam Feed Live at 2011 St Patrick's Day Parade

This year's Denver St. Patrick's Day Parade presented by Bellco Credit Union steps off at 10 a.m., Saturday, March 12, filling the streets of LoDo with lots of green and good Irish cheer.

This live feed is in Denver for the 2011 St Patrick's Day parade:

St Patrick's Day Denver Live Feed

St Patrick's Day:

Saint Patrick's Day is a religious holiday celebrated internationally on 17 March. It is named after Saint Patrick (c. AD 387–461), the most commonly recognised of the patron saints of Ireland. It originated as a Catholic holiday and became an official feast day in the early 17th century. It has gradually become more of a secular celebration of Irish culture.

It is a public holiday in the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland, Newfoundland and Labrador and in Montserrat. It is also widely celebrated by the Irish diaspora, especially in places such as Great Britain, Canada, the United States, Argentina, Australia, New Zealand, and Montserrat, among others.

Saint Patrick's feast day, as a kind of national day, was already being celebrated by the Irish in Europe in the ninth and tenth centuries. In later times he become more and more widely known as the patron of Ireland. Saint Patrick's feast day was finally placed on the universal liturgical calendar in the Catholic Church due to the influence of Waterford-born Franciscan scholar Luke Wadding in the early 1600s. Saint Patrick's Day thus became a holy day of obligation for Roman Catholics in Ireland. The church calendar avoids the observance of saints' feasts during certain solemnities, moving the saint's day to a time outside those periods. Saint Patrick's Day is occasionally affected by this requirement, when 17 March falls during Holy Week.