5 New York State Cities Rank As Best U.S. St. Patrick’s Day Parades

For those of us who love to celebrate St. Patrick's Day, we are happy that this year it falls on a Friday, giving us the weekend to rest up from all the fun. That is unless you work weekends.

For the greater Binghamton area, St. Patrick's Day is a big deal. Our biggest parade of the year is the St. Patrick's parade and many local establishments have special events going on.

The Wallet Hub website has some interesting facts about St. Patrick's Day. For example, out of 200 of the largest cities in the United States, five New York State cities are ranked high on the list of communities that celebrate St. Patrick's Day the most.

They are #5 - New York City, #9 - Buffalo, #15 - Syracuse, #31 - Yonkers, and #44 - Rochester. Scranton, Pennsylvania is one of the top ten cities in America where residents have the most Irish Ancestry.  Wallet Hub also notes that on St. Patrick's Day, beer sales will increase by 174 percent compared to the rest of the year.

The report states that about 61 percent of Americans will celebrate St. Patrick's Day in 2023, 80 percent will wear green on March 17th, and just under seven billion dollars will be spent on St. Patrick's Day.

As far as drinking, St. Patrick's Day is the 3rd among the most drinking days of the year, but the #1 holiday for drinking. Of course, the message here is to drink responsibly, don't drive drunk, and have a plan for someone else to drive you home, who is not drinking.

When it comes to food, Wallet Hub notes that about 31 percent of Americans plan on cooking a special dinner for March 17th. A couple of other interesting facts from Wallet Hub - the state of New Hampshire has the most residents with Irish ancestry at 20 percent. And the first St. Patrick's Day parade was held in 1737. Not in Ireland, but in Boston.

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