On Sunday, March 12th in Woodbridge, New Jersey, the 50th annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade was held. It started at 1:30 pm at the Woodbridge High School and ended at the Town Hall on Main Street.

For the past 50 years, Woodbridge has held a St. Patrick’s Day Parade. According to Woodbridge Patch more than 80 band units. Including the Irish pipe bands and dancers, Irish parade floats, marching bands from all three high schools, fire departments and more. Before the parade started, at 9 a.m. there were proclamations presented to the St. Patrick’s Day honorees at Woodbridge Middle School. Shortly after that, they raised the Irish national flag at Woodbridge Town Hall. Every year it is always crowded, all of the streets are packed with people. Even in thirty degree weather people still wouldn’t want to miss it.

Colonia High School’s band has been involved in these parades for many years. Sam Dobbin, trumpet player for the CHS band, likes marching in the St. Patrick’s Day parade: “Yes, because we work hard on the music and it’s fun to do it with the band and to part of the whole thing.”

Now, why do we have all of these St. Patrick’s Day Parades? According to History.com, St. Patrick is the patron saint and national apostle of Ireland. Since the ninth or tenth century, the people of Ireland the Roman Catholic feast day of St. Patrick on March 27th. The first St. Patrick’s Day parade wasn’t even held in Ireland, it was held in the United States. Over one hundred parades for St. Patrick’s Day are held all around the United States. The largest celebrations are in Boston and in New York City.

Furthermore, St. Patrick’s Day celebrated in so many places. Some of those places are Canada, Australia, Japan, Russia, Singapore, and more. In 1995, the Irish government decided to begin a national campaign to drive tourism and showcase in Ireland and Irish culture to the rest of the world. Ireland’s St. Patrick’s Festival in Dublin, has approximately one million people take part in it. That festival is a multi-day celebration that includes parades, concerts, outdoor theater productions, and fireworks.

St. Patrick’s Day is celebrated by so many people, and some of those people aren’t even Irish. There are so many ways that people celebrate this holiday. A lot of people wore green, some people have traditions as well as parties, and people go to many other parades besides the Woodbridge parade. St. Patrick’s Day is a holiday that is celebrated by many different people.