The St. Patrick’s Day Parade will see several road closures and transit diversions in the downtown core on Sunday.
The procession starts at Bloor Street West and St. George Street at noon and continues along Bloor before turning south onto Yonge Street, down to Dundas Street and Sankofa Square.
There will be full road closures in effect starting at 11:45 a.m. on Bloor Street from Huron Street to Yonge Street and Yonge Street from Bloor Street to Adelaide Street until 3 p.m.
Several secondary roads will be closed or partially closed from 9 a.m. until 1:30 p.m.:
- St. George Street from Bloor Street West to College Street
- Devonshire Place from Bloor Street West to Hoskin Avenue
- Sussex Avenue from Huron Street to St. George Street
- Hoskin Avenue from St. George Street to Queen’s Park Crescent West
- Harbord Street from St. George Street to Huron Street
- Ursula Franklin Street from Huron Street to St. George Street
Several TTC routes will also be impaced by the parade with the 13 Avenue Road, 19 Bay, 94 Wellesley, and 97 Yonge all on diversion starting as early as 8 a.m. until 2:30 p.m.
The TTC says that with no planned subway closures this weekend, extra train service is being added on Line 1 Yonge-University and Line 2 Bloor-Danforth, along with additional streetcars on the 505 Dundas and 506 Carlton routes to assist people in getting to and from the festivities.
If you’re looking to get in a quick run before raising a pint or two ahead of the parade, the 25th annual St. Paddy’s Day Race kicks off at 10:15 a.m. at Evergreen Brickworks, featuring a 10K, 5K, and 1K kids’ runs.
Who was St. Patrick and why is he celebrated?
Patrick was not actually Irish, according to experts. Born in the late fourth century, he was captured as an adolescent and ended up enslaved in Ireland. He escaped to another part of Europe, where he was trained as a priest and returned to Ireland in the fifth century to promote the spread of Christianity.
Several centuries later, he was made a saint by the Catholic Church and, like other saints had a day dedicated to him, which was March 17. He became Ireland’s patron saint, and even when religious strife broke out between Catholics and Protestants, he was claimed by both
While the day was marked with more of a religious framing and solemnity in Ireland until well into the 20th century, it has become the cultural and boisterous celebration it is today with parades, parties and other festivities by people without a trace of Irish heritage.
Oh, and by the way, for those who like to shorten names: Use St. Paddy’s Day, not St. Patty’s Day. Paddy is a nickname for Pádraig, which is the Irish spelling of Patrick.
What’s with four-leaf clovers, anyway?
A popular sight around the holiday is the shamrock, or three-leaf clover, linked to Ireland and St. Patrick.
The lucky ones, though, come across something that’s harder to find: a four-leaf clover. That’s because it takes a recessive trait or traits in the clover’s genetics for there to be more than the normal 3 leaves.
Files from The Associated Press were used in this report
