They take their saints seriously in Chicago.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! This is the first time I’ve been in a city that starts celebrating a full week before St. Patty’s.  Please enjoy this video shot at the South Side Irish St. Patrick’s Day parade on Sunday.

[flashvideo file=”flash_video/st.pats.flv” /]

*** Update, 3/27/2009 ***

Looks like this was the last South Side Irish Parade that will ever be.  The organizers have decided to cancel it, after it was reported that some of the attendees attacked police officers that were doing crowd control.

If you think about it, 54 arrests for 300,000 people isn’t all that bad — that’s barely 2 arrests per 10,000 attendees.  That’s lower than the per capita murder rate in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

I’m glad I got to see it once, though.