Time To Paint Chicago Green!
It’s a St. Patrick’s Day tradition: the city of Chicago dyes their river green, as thousands of fans arrive to celebrate the big day Sunday!
Yes, you will see lots of green apparel as well as beverages as the town goes wild for the Irish!
The city of Chicago began the “painting” of the river green in 1962.
As wikipedia reports, the inspiration for the stunt came from pollution-control workers, who used various chemical dyes to trace illegal sewage discharges. Yep, they got the idea while looking for “sewage discharge!”
That first year, the city dumped 100 pounds of dye into the river, which left it green for an entire week!
Officials say they now se less than 25 pounds of dye, and it’s vegetable-based, so safe to everything in the water!
Here is a look at how they “paint” the river:
After the spray down, then smaller boats stir it all in…the entire ceremony takes a half hour, then it’s on to the next celebration – a parade – followed by a day long celebration that lasts well into the night…
Happy St. Patricks Day to everyone!
Categories: chicago, Exotic Travel, Memoirs, Pop Culture, Travel, Travel Adventures, Travel Memoir
johnrieber 
How cool is that! I love how festive it looks – people really celebrate it.
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Some way too much – the bars are open and serving from 8a or earlier in some cases!
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I have nothing remotely Irish in my family or connections. So the 17th is never a day I celebrate. Especially as it is always the day after my birthday. 🙂
One good thing about living in Beetley is, that unlike London, it is as if the 17th is just ‘Sunday’.
Best wishes, Pete.
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Reblogged this on It Is What It Is and commented:
On a preview, before the day … ‘Happy St. Patrick’s Day to everyone!’
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THANK YOU FOR SHARING!
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🙏🏽🙏🏽
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I only saw the river green once when I lived there, a day or two after, of course it wasn’t that colorful, but thanks for showing how they did it, I never knew that. I did see the parade a few times though and that was always fun. One of the best St. Pat’s parades was in Sacramento, but they turned into drunken brawls and the city ended it. That was a shame.
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Sacto has a big Irish community, maybe from the miners who came to pan for gold in the 1850’s, and this is a story I wrote you might find fun… https://tedstrutz.com/2012/03/15/%E4%BF%B3%E5%8F%A5-haiku-bombers-2-st-paddys-tacos/
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Thanks for your comment! Yes, the drunken revelry gets out of control which is too bad as it takes away from the fun of the day!
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i love this tradition
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I got to attend this several times in Chicago…the revelry begins very early and goes well into the night!
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What fun, John. Everything in the US is always bigger and better.
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Well, in Chicago they embrace this “holiday” to the max, that’s for sure! It’s a fun but raucous day – and the “painting” of the river is a lot of fun to see!
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What fun John! Here’s to the Irish in us! 🙂
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It’s a big day of celebration for sure!
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