The Never-Ending Holiday

I used to think the never-ending holiday was Christmas. You know why- by Thanksgiving they have those singing Santas on the shelves at Target and 'Jingle Bell Rock' playing at Macy's. It seems like Christmas will never come...and when it does, you have to buy enough to make it seem worth all the fuss.

But that was until I moved here. I have come to realize that the actual never-ending holiday is in fact....St. Patrick's Day! I would never have guessed. Especially because I asked multiple people throughout the weekend who St. Patrick was, what he did and why we celebrate him here in America if he was Irish? No one seemed to know or care. But they did seem to care just enough to start the celebrating on Friday...and not finish until early this morning.

It begins with the river dyeing:

http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&rls=GGLD%2CGGLD%3A2006-04%2CGGLD%3Aen&um=1&q=chicago+river+dye+2009

And it continues with the South Side Parade (which was SO fun):

http://chicago.metromix.com/bars-and-clubs/photogallery/south-side-irish-st/1025330/content

And ends with the actual Day-Of-Events like pub crawls, Irish dancing festivals, and lots of green beer drinking.

All-in-all I think I could get used to this never-ending holiday.....