Munich's Irish community, and their friends, are celebrating the Munich St. Patrick's Day Parade on Sunday 16th March 2008. From a parade that started out in 1996 with an estimated few hundred followers, it has grown to become the largest celebration of St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland, on mainland Europe.
Although St. Patrick's Day itself is always 17th March, the parade takes place on the previous Sunday. In recent years there have been around 15,000 participants. Leopoldstraße and Ludwigstraße are closed to traffic between noon and 1pm as the parade makes it's way from Münchner Freiheit to Odeonsplatz.
At Odeonsplatz, between 2pm and 6pm, there will be a live concert on two stages. Attendance is free. There will also be various refreshments and food on sale.
After all this the crowd generally descends on one of the Irish pubs in Munich. These pubs are always good fun but be prepared - they are very crowded.
Who was Patrick?
Patrick was born to an Welsh family (or possibly southern Scottish) in 385 AD. When a teenager he was kidnapped and sold into slavery in Ireland. He managed to escape from this and travelled throughout Europe on "walkabout". In 430 AD he returned to Ireland and introduced Christianity there. Not much more is known about his life. What little is known comes from an autobiographical work he wrote called Confessions. He died on 17th March 461 at the age of 76. There are several monuments in Ireland but it is not known which particular one is his real grave.
See also:
TT chat forum topics:
- St. Patrick's Day Parade 2007
- St. Patrick's Day Parade 2006
- St. Patrick's Day Parade 2005
- St. Patrick's Day Parade 2004
- St. Patrick's Day Parade 2003
External links:
- www.stpatricksday.de - Munich parade official website
- keydeck.com / stpatricksday - some great photos from 2004
- Saint Patrick's Day - Wikipedia