NYC celebrates its 264th St. Patrick's Day Parade

NEW YORK - Despite the gray and gloomy day, New York City went green and orange for its 264th annual St. Patrick's Day Parade!

School marching bands and traditional Irish pipe and drum ensembles ambled down Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue with uniformed delegations from the FDNY and NYPD.

Bagpipers play as they march during the annual St. Patrick's Day Parade in New York City on March 17, 2025 in New York City. (Photo by Craig T Fruchtman/Getty Images)

It's one of the nation’s largest and oldest parades.

The celebration made its way north past designer shops and St. Patrick’s Cathedral, a stunning neo-Gothic landmark that’s the seat of the Catholic Archdiocese of New York.

Mayor Eric Adams donned a green cap and scarf and waved an Irish flag while Catholic Archbishop Timothy Dolan greeted marchers wearing a green, white and orange sash -- the national colors of the Emerald Isle.

"It’s fantastic to be here," Ryan Hanlon, vice chairman of the parade’s board of directors, said as a light morning rain fell. "We’re getting a little bit of rain at the moment, but as we Irish call it, it’s just liquid sunshine."

The New York celebration dates to 1762 – 14 years before the U.S. Declaration of Independence. Monday's parade lasted through the afternoon, ending on the east side of Central Park, about 35 blocks from where it started.

Participants dressed in green and Irish themed costumes march during the St. Patrick's Day Parade on 5th Avenue in Manhattan on March 17, 2025 in New York City. (Photo by Roy Rochlin/Getty Images)