2021 Virtual St. Patrick’s Day

By David T. Valentin

Unfortunately for the second year in a row, St. Patrick’s Day parades have been cancelled all over New York City, but that hasn’t stopped New Yorkers from celebrating the holiday.

If you head over to NYC St Patrick’s Parade website, you can find a slew of virtual events that you and your family can attend for the day right from the comfort of your living room.

The first event taking place, which consists throughout the entire day, is a live stream event from New York City honoring a number of select First Responders and Essential Workers.

If you click on the link on the page (here), you’ll find a heart-warming array of videos from people of all walks of life celebrating St. Patrick’s Day either today, or from the past.

The next event was a one-hour-long show streamed on Facebook and produced by world-renowned TV producer Mike Mathis. The show includes greetings from Irish and U.S. political community leader, including entertainment by Andy Cooney and Moya Brennan. Although the event took off at 11:00, you can still watch it here on YouTube.

At 5:00 p.m. to end it all will be a special TV broadcast produced with the Catholic Faith Network. The broadcast will include interviews from Parade leaders, Timothy Cardinal Dolan, and the 2021 Parade honorees “First Responder and Essential Worker.” For Optimum users in the Long Island area, you can tune in on channel 29, all other areas will be broadcasted on channel 37. For Verizon Fios users, channel 296 and Charter Spectrum users will have to tune in on either Channel 162 or 471.

The amazing thing about virtual events though, is that you can tune in wherever you are in the world. So if NYC’s events are not your cup of tea, you can cross the sea for some exciting events like, virtual guided tours through Oscar Wilde’s hometown of Dublin, along with readings from the author’s works.

If you’re more into the history side of St. Patrick’s Day, or just looking to inquire into why people celebrate the holiday, you can join RTE History show presenter Myles Dungan with an animated, light-hearted take on the history of St. Patrick’s Day.

Over in Dublin, Ireland you can join in on their virtual festival, which includes exciting events such as costume making, puppetry, and so much more.

So take your pick of events, settle on the couch with family and friends and enjoy the day’s celebrations.