Faith and traditions infuse St. Patrick’s Day in Savannah

In this Friday, March 11, 2016 photo, a crowd watches as the cast-iron fountain in Forsyth Park sprays water dyed green less a week before the St. Patrick's Day parade in Savannah, Ga. While dying the fountains in Savannah's parks is a longstanding St. Patrick's Day tradition, many visitors believe the city dyes the Savannah River as well. That happened only once in 1961. (AP Photo/Russ Bynum) In this Friday, March 11, 2016 photo, a crowd watches as the cast-iron fountain in Forsyth Park sprays water dyed green less a week before the St. Patrick's Day parade in Savannah, Ga. While dying the fountains in Savannah's parks is a longstanding St. Patrick's Day tradition, many visitors believe the city dyes the Savannah River as well. That happened only once in 1961. (AP Photo/Russ Bynum)

By Associated Press March 16, 2017 4 min read

SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) – There were no green beers or gaudy T-shirts when Savannah first celebrated St. Patrick’s Day, just a solemn procession of immigrants seeking to honor their Irish roots more than 3,800 miles from their homeland across the Atlantic.

Many things have changed in the nearly two centuries since Georgia’s oldest city held its inaugural St. Patrick’s Day parade in 1824. Now thousands of tourists from across the U.S. flock to Savannah every March 17 for a sprawling street party that may be the South’s largest celebration between Mardi Gras and Spring Break.

Still, many of Savannah’s Irish descendants maintain St. Patrick’s Day traditions that have nothing to do with beer-swilling revelry. Here are some of the (mostly) sober ways Savannah celebrates the Irish holiday that arrives Friday.

MASS BEFORE MARCHING

Before they join the masses lining the sidewalks and filling the oak-shaded squares to watch the St. Patrick’s Day parade, roughly 1,000 of the Savannah’s Catholic faithful fill the pews for Mass at the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist.