The Country’s Oldest St. Patrick’s Day Parade

Buffalo always has two St. Patrick’s Day parades – the one in the old First Ward on the Saturday closest to St. Patrick’s Day and then the one down Delaware Avenue the following day.

This country’s oldest and largest St. Patrick’s Day parade is in New York City. It marched for the first time in 1762 – 16 years before the Declaration of Independence.

That first St. Patrick’s Day parade was organized by Irish soldiers serving in the British Army to celebrate their heritage. As more and more Irish settlers arrived in the American colonies the parade kept getting bigger and bigger.

And it’s one of the few in which no cars, floats, buses, trucks or other vehicles are allowed. It’s all about people – 250-thousand of them marching up Fifth Avenue from 42nd Street to 86th Street.