Gallery • 17 Photos

Kaelah Serrano

Plumbers Local Union 130 and Country Financial flags flap in the wind as boats sail across the green Chicago River on Saturday, March 11. Since 1962, Plumbers Local Union 130 has been dyeing the river green.

It was just past 8 in the morning on March 11, and the party was already starting at the Chicago Riverwalk. People crowded the riverwalk from Columbus Drive to State Street for a chance to see the Chicago Plumbers Union Local 130 dye the river green in a tradition that goes back more than six decades.

Later in the afternoon, the union hosted a St. Patrick’s Day parade that ran along Columbus Drive between Balbo and Monroe. Thousands of people were adorned in green to celebrate the Irish holiday. The parade, much like the annual river dyeing, became a tradition through Chicago’s Mayor Richard J. Daley.

On Sunday in the Beverly neighborhood, Chicago had the South Side Irish Parade. The parade started at 103rd Street and Western Avenue and traveled down to 115th and Western Avenue. Chicago’s South Side Irish Parade boasts that it is the biggest St. Patrick’s day celebration outside of Ireland.