PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Thousands lined up along the streets of Center City and Old City wearing the colors of Ireland for the city’s long-running annual St. Patrick’s Day parade. The otherwise gray and dreary weather over the weekend gave way to a vibrant sea of green, white and orange.
The Cavan Society recreated the Philadelphia skyline on a parade float representing the 2024 parade theme: “St. Patrick, Bless Philadelphia with a new dawn of hope.”
Mayor Cherelle Parker, who often repeats her campaign pledge to make Philadelphia a greener city, might have felt some of that hope as she joined the procession, right up front. She was one of about 20,000 marchers in the parade, which is billed as the city’s largest by number of participants, comprising groups such as Irish dancers, pipe bands and cultural organizations.
One such group is the 69th Pennsylvania Irish Volunteers, a team of Civil War reenactors. Michael Ernsberger, now in his 26th year with the Volunteers, says he gets decked out in his replica Civil War captain’s uniform for the parade every year.
“We're one of the few units that are able to actually fire our rifles during the parade. We actually got special permission to be able to do so. It is a huge crowd pleaser,” Ernsberger said.
Third-generation Irish American Sean Smith said he follows in his father’s footsteps as a member of the Cavan Society, which his grandfather first joined when he came to the United States from Ireland.
“My father, my uncle had started to build floats for the Cavan Society, and then my brother and I did,” Smith said. “It means a lot.”
Daniella Repkoe, a newcomer, says she came to town dressed in green and wearing four-leaf-clover glasses to watch her 10-year-old niece perform in the parade.
“I've always seen it on TV, but it's so much bigger, seeing it all in person, and seeing everyone in their green,” Repkoe said. “And Philly's just a really great place to be able to celebrate St. Patty's.”
The parade, hosted by the St. Patrick’s Day Observance Association, made its way eastward down Market Street, from City Hall to Penn’s Landing.
The group has been running it since 1952, but the parade, among the city’s longest-running traditions, is much older than that. The first documented St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Philadelphia took place in 1771 before the nation’s founding.