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(Recast) St. Patrick's Day parade draws 2 mln crowds

Xinhua, March 18, 2015 Adjust font size:

An estimated 2 million people packed the Fifth Avenue here Tuesday for the 253rd annual St. Patrick's Day Parade in New York City.

The parade, which dates back to 1762, has attracted tens of thousands of spectators lining up along the Fifth Avenue to watch the parade march up from 50th Street until East 79th Street.

The parade, celebrating Irish culture and heritage, featured scores of bagpipers, marching bands and city officials.

"We all celebrate being Irish, even though we are not at all Irish. It's an international celebration," Mike, a German tourist who declined to give his full name, told Xinhua.

An openly gay group is being allowed for the first time to march under their own banner. NYC Mayor Bill De Blasio skipped the parade as he believed more gay groups should be allowed to take part in the march.

St. Patrick's Day, a religious holiday celebrated internationally on March 17, is named after Saint Patrick, the most commonly recognized of the patron saints of Ireland.

The day is generally characterized by the attendance of church services, wearing of green attire and the lifting of Lenten restrictions on fasting and drinking alcohol for the day, which has encouraged and propagated the holiday's tradition of alcohol consumption.

St. Patrick's Day is a public holiday in the United States. Endite