In Chicago, Saint Patrick's Day big parade passes through the streets. This is one of the best of Chicago's many parades, with drummers, marching bands, floats decorated with leprechauns and shamrocks, Irish dancers and throngs of celebrants dressed in green. A quantity of food dye keeps the Chicago River an interesting shade of green for a few hours.

New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) is encouraging New Yorkers to buy green, to save green on St. Patrick’s Day. The New York St. Patrick's Day Parade route starts at 44th Street at 11 am.

It moves its way up Fifth Avenue past St. Patrick's Cathedral at 50th Street and the American Irish Historical Society at 83rd. It moves on toward the Metropolitan Museum of Art at 83rd Street to its finishing point 86th Street. It is expected to attract over two million crowd during a huge parade on St. Patrick's Day on March 17 in New York City.