St. Patrick’s Day revelers painted the town green, celebrating the holiday with spirted parties and parades across the United States.
New York City kicked off one of the largest and oldest St. Patrick’s Day parades in the country at 11 a.m. on Monday.
The rolling celebration, now in its 264th year, saw some 150,000 marchers and nearly 2 million spectators turn Manhattan’s famed Fifth Avenue into a sea of green.
Other major U.S. cities known for their Irish heritage, such as Savannah, Georgia, saw swarms of shamrock-festooned revelers fill the streets over the weekend.
One woman in Savannah was seen on the street on Sunday – surrounded by first responder, administering an IV drip as she laid on the concrete. It’s unclear what she was being treated for.
Others decked out in green, white and orange – the national colors of Ireland – were seen on the streets drinking cans of beer and taking swings from bottles of Jägermeister.
Crowds of young people waited in long lines to get inside bars and celebrate while trash piled up on the streets of downtown Savannah.
Savannah Mayor Van Johnson warned there would be increase safety measures ahead of the celebration, reported WJCL.
‘This year, you’ll continue to see not only our basic, but our enhanced, public safety measures that will be deployed throughout the weekend,’ Johnson said
The mayor advised that the city’s alcohol beverage compliance team is on high alert looking for underage drinkers, and making sure bars are pouring only what they should.
‘If you should not be drinking, you should not drink. If you’re underage, you should not be drinking, should not be in these alcohol-serving establishments. If you don’t have an alcohol license, you shouldn’t be serving alcohol. We will cite individuals and hold them responsible,’ Johnson said.
Boston – known as America’s most Irish big city – marked the occasion Sunday with the South Boston St. Patrick’s Day parade.
Before the parade kicked off, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority posted a photo on social media showing a pile of clear garbage bags filled with confiscated booze, including gallon-sized jugs filled with green liquid.
Chicago’s St. Patrick’s Day celebration, which is punctuated by turning its namesake river bright green with dye, happened Saturday.
Thousands lined the river and packed bridges Saturday and erupted in cheers as members of the Chicago Journeymen Plumbers Union Local 130 sprayed dye into the water from boats.