My husband & I are visiting MA for the first time & will be in the Boston area for March 17th. Where should we celebrate St Patrick's Day?? Thx

Opps! Am new to this & posted same message twice-

The parade is always on Sundays, though it used to be on the 17th. This year, it's on Sunday March 19.

The whole city gets very festive for this holiday so you can go almost anywhere and have a good time.

For St. Patrick's Day itself I recommend the Fanueil Hall area, tons of Irish Bars there, Hennessy's, Grand Canal, Green Dragon, The Harp, Paddy O's, Purple Shamrock, Black Rose, Kinsale, Ned Devine's, Kitty O'Shea's to name a few. But really anywhere, people get started around noon .

The parade is on Sunday the 19th in Southie. It's more of an event than a good parade, kind of an excuse to drink on a Sunday and hang out with friends. The route goes along Broadway, any bar on East Broadway will be fun. Actual parade starts at 1 but, again, people get started a lot earlier than that!

I don't think I'd choose Cambridge for St. Patrick's Day.

I think dowab must work for americasbestonline.net. He/she offers that website on numerous posts. The reason I mention this is because I was a little stumped by their suggestion to go to Cambridge but I think I understand now. The list of Irish pubs on the website is severely out of date. For example, the Plough and Stars is currently closed.

Every year the mayor puts out some statement that the city will not tolerate public drinking and then every one drinks in public at will.

I think they moved parade years ago to a Sunday when old Blue Laws in Massachusetts prohibited sale of alcohol on Sundays as a way of limiting drinking.

Another useless piece of info is that March 17 is a Suffolk County (Boston) holiday - they call it some bogus name like Evacuation Day to give public employees the day off - I think it has some historical basis regarding the Revolutionary War and the British leaving some part of Boston - but that may be as authentic as St. Patrick anyway.

LOL Gail,

I remember getting "Evacuation Day" off when I was in college. My boss at the time told me that the "Irish Politicians" in the State House voted for that "holiday", so they could spend all day drinking in the pubs. (He would know, being an Old School Irish Pol himself.)

My daughter and I were on a college preview trip last year and were in Boston on the day of the parade.

She's too young to go in pubs, so we took the T to the end of the parade route. Had a wonderful time! The weather was warm, there were tons of places to get "parade' food, and we loved just watching the crowds. Really felt like Boston at its Irish best. Its part of the reason she chose to attend BU.