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St. Patrick’s Day in Savannah is steeped in centuries of traditions, festivals and the celebration of Irish heritage from the families who came here more than 200 years ago. It’s a culmination of locals, visitors from around the world, and party goers; Savannah’s Southern hospitality and charm are on display throughout every facet of it.
My earliest memories of St. Patrick’s Day go back to when I was 5 years old, sitting on the curb in small fold out chairs in front of Independent Presbyterian Church with my two younger sisters and my Grandmother, Nana. To a five year old, the parade was larger than life with the Marching bands, clowns, performers, horses, celebrities, and of course the generations of families of Irish descent who had been Marching in the parade since it’s inception in 1824.
When you grow up in Savannah, you also have food memories associated with St.Patrick’s Day that go back as far as you can remember. My Mother made green grits for breakfast, and corned beef and cabbage with potatoes for supper. My sisters and I have all continued those St. Patrick’s Day traditions.
As a teenager, St. Patrick’s Day in Savannah turned into hanging out with friends, and gathering in the squares and traveling in groups from square to square, shouting out at the people you knew who were marching in the parade, and walking from square to square to find other people that you knew who were doing the same thing.
During the College years, it was always fun to bring friends home for a few days around St. Patrick’s Day, so that they could partake in the parade and festivities, and experience all that St. Patrick’s Day in Savannah had to offer.
The post college years saw my husband and I hosting friends from out of town on numerous St. Patrick’s Days and enjoying sharing our traditions and watching them experience the parade and other events through their eyes.
Later, as a mother, it was so much fun to share the traditions and celebrations with my son Jacob, starting at the age of 4. We would get up early, set up a tent right on the parade route, so close you could reach out and touch the parade participants, although it was and still is highly frowned upon. Family, friends, and their children would gather with us in our tent and the two tents next to us in the median in front of the fire station on Oglethorpe and Abercorn with the grandiose European style Cathedral of St. John the Baptist gazing down at us from the next block. What a heartwarming experience it was to carry on the St. Patrick’s Day parade traditions with Jacob, and get a momentary glimpse into the future and wondering if he would be sharing our family traditions with his children one day. His favorite things about the parade at that age were all of the 4 year old boy things -- the firemen, fire trucks, army men, tanks, the policemen on foot and on horses, pirates, pirate ships, marching bands, clowns and, of course, the Clydesdale Horses!
We did that every year for the next 10 years until Jacob was a Freshman in High school at Benedictine Military School and actually marched in the parade with the Corps of Cadets. It was as if time stood still for a moment as then, 14 year old Jacob marched by in his ROTC dress uniform, sternly looking straight ahead, and there right in front of me was another tradition in the making, a proud parent moment and a new memory.
Of course, after the parade, he and his friends went to walk from square to square and socialize. A few years later, my nephew would march in the St. Patrick’s Day parade as a Freshman with the Benedictine Military School Corps of Cadets, carrying on that tradition and making yet another fond St. Patrick’s Day memory.
This year, Jacob has entered the twenty-something-year old stage of St. Patrick’s Day, hanging out with his twenty-something-year-old friends, doing twenty-something things.
Last year, Jacob invited a friend from Chicago to come to Savannah for the week before and the weekend of St. Patrick’s Day. The friend was skeptical about attending a small Southern town’s
St.Patrick’s Day Parade. I mean, he was from Chicago for Pete’s sake! Jacob quickly told him that Savannah has the second largest parade in the country outside of New York, and it’s bigger than the parades in Chicago and Boston. Savannah gets about 300,000 people from all over the world in attendance every year. With this new found information, the friend decided to see what Savannah’s St. Patrick’s Day was all about. Needless to say, he’s came back this year!
As for me, I have attended more St. Patrick’s Day Parades and events in Savannah than I have not. If, for some reason I happen to not be in attendance this year, I will be watching it live on one or more of the local news stations, looking for people I know, and enjoying every minute of it. It’s not the same as being there, but it’s the next best thing.
No matter your age or your phase in life, there is truly nothing like St. Patrick’s Day in Savannah!
Happy St. Patrick’s Day and Erin Go Bragh! 🍀
