HPR

Celebrating the Irish way

By Tiffany Broden
Contributing Writer

“Kiss me, I’m Irish.” Just kidding, I’m not really Irish. But come March 17 we can all claim ourselves to be of Irish descent, mostly for an excuse to drink green beer and eat corned beef and cabbage; a weird, but most fun celebration. To kick off the green celebration the St. Patrick’s Day parade will be held March 12 at 3 p.m. downtown Fargo, the only parade on St. Patrick’s Day in North Dakota.

St. Patrick’s Day has been an Irish tradition for more than a thousand years. Although today it’s known as a “drinking holiday,” when it first began, Irish law forbade bars and pubs to be opened on the religious holiday. But the real question isn’t when it became a drinking holiday, okay, wait a minute, kind of. But maybe we should know a little about St. Patrick, since we are celebrating his life.

St. Patrick led a tough life. He was born in Britain in the fourth century, and when he was 16 years old, the Irish, who were attacking his family estate, took him captive. He was put in prison for six years before he finally decided to MacGyver his way out – mainly because God told him to.

So there he was. A 22-year-old man walking 200 miles (maybe less, maybe more – it was a long time ago) to escape from this prison to get to the Irish coast so he could sail away back to Britain. While on his journey, St. Patrick had a second revelation. God spoke to him telling him to return to Ireland to convert the Irish to Christianity. He did it in a way that the Irish were already familiar with. He incorporated spiritual rituals that they were already practicing and added Christian twists and stories. It is also believed that he was the first to bring Christianity to Ireland, but no one really knows if it’s true or not.

The first parade in St. Patrick’s honor was not even held in Ireland. It was held in New York City in 1762. The reason was for all the Irish immigrants and soldiers of Irish descent to reconnect with their home roots.

And it has carried years and miles away from home, all the way to the first St. Patrick’s Day parade in Fargo in 1996. It started off with just a few Irish families and a couple local businesses and has grown tremendously. Today the parade is filled with Irish Dancers, big family floats and rock and roll bands. And downtown is filled with people dressed in green. “About 3,000 to 5,000 people show up for the parade.” Paul Evans said. Evans is on the St. Patrick’s Day parade committee. “And it keeps growing every year,” said Kim Mahli, another St. Patrick’s Day committee member. “We’re basically twelve morons that sit around and talk nonsense,” said Evans talking about the parade committee.

To kick off the parade, the Lake Agassiz Pacers will be hosting a 5k race and a kid’s fun run. “This is the first year we’ll be joining with the Lake Agassiz Pacers.” Mahli said. “The kids will run first, and then the 5k will go. We won’t start the parade until the last runner has finished.” If you’re interested in joining the race, the cost is 35 dollars and prizes for the best male and female dressed in green attire will be given out.

“Our goal of the parade is to not take ourselves to seriously.” Mahli said. Saturday will be filled with Irish fun. The Dirty Hurlers will be rocking their Irish tunes before, during and after the parade. There will be horses and donkeys, a rodeo queen, the 642 firefighters will be bringing their trucks to the parade, color guards and what’s an Irish parade with out bagpipes? Heather and Thistle Bag Pipes will also be marching their way down Broadway.

Everyone is encouraged to come downtown and celebrate St. Patrick’s Day with the parade. “It might be cold outside,” Mahli said, “But it’s the shortest parade in Fargo and it has the most candy. I’ve been spending years calculating the perfect parade candy formula and finally came up with the answer. Twenty-four pounds of candy per person in the parade.” That way the young, old and in between can run on the streets and grab their share. “We haven’t had the best weather in the past, but people still come out to the parade.” Mahli said. “If it wasn’t for all the awesome people in this community this parade wouldn’t happen.”

And the businesses downtown have been a big help to the parade, too. Businesses like Josie’s Corner Café and Bake Shop that help sponsor the parade by supplying gift certificates to hand out during the parade. The VFW is the biggest sponsor of the parade and is also the parade headquarters. Other businesses that sponsor the parade include: Bennigans, Downtown Community Partnership, Duffy’s, Empire Tavern/Bismarck Tavern, Kennelley and O’Keefe Attorneys, 642 Firefighters, Moran Flooring, Shamrock Marketing, Chub’s Pub, Dempsey’s, JL Beers, Rooters, Old Broadway and many more. “We try to keep it downtown and family run.” Mahli said. “Some bigger businesses have tried to take over the parade, but we want to keep it easy and unofficial. We want to keep it free, fun and family-orientated. There’s been so much support that’s consistent from businesses and individuals that we can keep adding on and bring more events downtown for the parade.”

Not only is the St. Patrick’s Day parade a fun, short spectacle, (known as the “between the tracks parade) but also it’s one last hoorah for the community before everyone has to start working hard throwing sandbags to fight the flood. “It’s a good mentality.” Mahli said. “It’s a big hype where everyone can get together and have fun. Something they can look forward to before they have to roll up their sleeves and start fighting. We’re really doing our job if we can do something fun.” Luckily, the St. Patrick’s Day parade has never had any problems with flooding during the parade, possibly some luck from the Irish.

While the parade itself is good old fashion family fun, there are plenty of post-parade festivities that will include Guinness, Jamison Whiskey and green beer. The Dirty Hurlers will be playing at the VFW starting at 10 p.m. and Poitin, a local Irish band, will be playing at Dempsey’s once at 6 p.m. and again at 9 p.m. Poitin will also be making an appearance on the actual Saint’s day, March 17. Other local businesses will be having specials and serving Irish traditions, so make sure to come downtown and show your Irish spirit. Whether you’re actually Irish makes no difference.

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IF YOU GO:
What: Fargo-Moorhead St. Patrick’s Parade 2011
When: 3 p.m. Saturday, March 12
Where: Broadway, Downtown Fargo
Cost: Free