Celebrating St. Patrick’s Day 2023
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We really enjoy holidays and festivals that celebrate different cultures, interesting people (real or legendary/ saints or sinners), historical events and/or fetes that salute something special about a town or place. Celebrations that come to mind are, of course, the big national and religious holidays throughout the year like Christmas, Easter, Purim, Eid, Chinese New Year, 4th of July, Canada Day, Australia Day to name just a few and the lesser ones like Halloween, Valentine’s Day and even Groundhog’s Day…./ all of which we’ve celebrated at one time or another.
Festivals have included Greek Festivals and Scottish Fests, the Mariposa Butterfly Festival, the National Hobo Convention and festivals for lumbermen like the Huon Show in Tasmania and Tall Timber Days in Grand Rapids, Minnesota. We’ve enjoyed each and every one of them.
My personal favorite - St. Patrick’s Day in Wellington, New Zealand - 2009
So celebrating St. Patrick’s Day, even though we’re not Irish, is just one more holiday to embrace because on St. Patrick’s Day… everybody’s Irish. So we headed to Henderson last weekend to check out one of the largest St Patrick's celebrations in Nevada. There’s a carnival, kiosks, food vendors and a car show, but the parade is the highlight.
Henderson’s Water Street District was closed to traffic. The crowd and the anticipation grew as the parade start time neared. We walked along the parade route and found a vacant, albeit somewhat uncomfortable seat on a concrete wall from which to view the parade. Then the fun started.
St. Patrick himself led the parade, standing tall and waving at the crowd.
Twirlers and dancing troupes got to strut their stuff as did the Golden Girls Pompom Club members. Firetrucks and police cars, sirens blaring, passed by to the delight of the kids. Car dealerships, insurance companies and grocery stores were represented. Local labor, electrical and floor coverers unions were there. (I never realized there was a floor coverers union, but why not?) School kids, the Shriners and their little cars, Girl Scouts, ROTC members, even the Irish Setters Club… they all marched by in some semblance of order (or not!).
Vikings (the Scandinavian variety, not the football type) showed up to help celebrate the day as did pirates, Wookies, Storm Troopers and the Lucky Charms leprechaun. The 2-hour long parade was entertaining with a small-town flavor, reminding me of the Memorial Day parades in which I participated when I was a schoolgirl… no Wookies then though.
At the conclusion of the parade, the crowd spilled over onto Water Street and we threaded out way to check out the carnival, the food vendors and the craft kiosks. There was Irish whiskey tasting and dancers stepped lively to Irish jig music. Celtic music filled the air. It was very festive and very green. We passed on the amusement rides although the carousel was tempting. It was too early for green beer, Irish whiskey or fried pickles and we finally made it through the crowd and headed back to our parked car. Enough festivity for one day, but we did pick up brochures for an upcoming Pirate Fest (arrgh!) and Highland Games Celtic Fest. So many festivals, so little time.
Happy St. Patrick’s Day!