Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Wordy Wednesday: A Green Tradition



In honor of St Patrick's Day tomorrow and the fact that my husband is part Irish I decided to look up a random tradition for the holiday. Enjoy!!



Sometime in the 19th century, as St. Patrick's Day parades were flourishing, wearing the color green became a show of commitment to Ireland.

In 1962 the show of solidarity took a spectacular turn in Chicago when the city decided to dye a portion of the Chicago River green.

The tradition started when parade organizer Steve Bailey, head of a plumbers' union, noticed how a dye used to trace possible sources of river pollution had stained a colleague's overalls a brilliant green, according to greenchicagoriver.com.

Why not use the dye to turn the whole river green on St. Patrick's Day, Bailey thought. So began the tradition.

1 comment:

mary r said...

oh. i always thought they did that for me. KIDDING.