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Asia Minute: Asia Celebrates St. Patrick’s Day

Hongreddotbrewhouse
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Wikimedia Commons

Tomorrow is St Patrick’s Day. And while there are celebrations around the islands, there are also a growing number of people marking the day in the Asia Pacific. HPR’s Bill Dorman has more in today’s Asia Minute.

Auckland, New Zealand claims to be the first major city in the world to celebrate St Patrick’s Day – all about the time zones.

Neighboring Australia hosts the largest St Patrick’s Day parade in the southern hemisphere. Some 80,000 people are expected on the streets of Sydney. According to organizers, it’s the only St Patrick’s Day event in the world outside Ireland that’s financially supported by the Irish government.

Tokyo has been hosting a green-themed parade for 26 years. The website traveller.com puts the Japanese capital on its list of top ten places in the world to celebrate St Patrick’s Day.

The Irish Post puts Singapore on its list of top seven places to celebrate St Patrick’s Day outside of Ireland—noting it’s the largest such observance in Southeast Asia. Singapore’s St Patrick’s Day Ball has already sold out according to the Facebook page of the St Patrick’s Society of Singapore. But room is still available at the street festival.

Credit Mike Young / Wikimedia Commons
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Wikimedia Commons
The Sydney Opera House in the St. Patrick's Day spirit.

And while it’s not quite on the level of Chicago, local media report that portions of the Singapore River will be dyed green.

One of Ireland’s 19 Ministers of State will stop by Singapore today, but KCLR Radio in Kilkenny reports Minister John Paul Phelan will be attending the St Patrick’s Day Irish Ball in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Bill Dorman has been the news director at Hawaiʻi Public Radio since 2011.
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