The Chicago River is dyed green right before the start of the St. Patrick's Day parade in Chicago, Saturday, March, 16, 2013. With the holiday itself falling on a Sunday, many celebrations were scheduled instead for Saturday because of religious observances. AP Photo/Paul Beaty Members of the Petri School of Irish Dance perform at the Ireland Chamber of Commerce 17th annual St. Patrick's Day Breakfast, in New York, Saturday, March 16, 2013. The Irish, their descendants and the Irish for the day prepared to don green and pay tribute to Hibernian heritage as a weekend of St. Patrick's Day celebrations was set from New York's Fifth Avenue to the Louisiana bayou to Dublin's Parnell Square. Kevin Rippman, of Savannah, Ga., checks in with his wife on the phone after setting up before dawn in Lafayette Square before Savannah's 189-year-old St. Patrick's Day parade, Saturday, March 16, 2013, in Savannah, Ga. St. Patrick's Day falls on March 17, which is Sunday. But a number of cities, including Savannah, New York and Chicago are all holding parades Saturday to take advantage of the full weekend. Bev Kehayes, left, of Greensboro, N.C., gets her homemade hat pinned on her head by her friend Mary Parrish, center, and Sara Farnsworth, right, before Savannah's 189-year-old St. Patrick's Day parade, Saturday, March 16, 2013, in Savannah, Ga. Sabella Cartwright, of Bonaire, Ga., waits for her friends to show up with coolers and food before the start of Savannah's 189-year-old St. Patrick's Day parade, Saturday March 16, 2013 in Savannah, Ga. NEW YORK (AP) - Crowds cheered and bagpipes bellowed as New York City's annual St. Patrick's Day parade kicked off Saturday, and people with a fondness for anything Irish began a weekend of festivities from the Louisiana bayou to Dublin's Parnell Square. In New York, the massive parade, which predates the United States, was led by 750 members of the New York Army National Guard. Michael Bloomberg took in his last St. Patrick's Day parade as mayor, waving to a cheering crowd as snowflakes fell on Fifth Avenue. Marching just behind him was Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny, who presented Bloomberg with a historic Irish teapot earlier. "The Irish are found in every borough, every corner of New York," Kenny said at a holiday breakfast. In previous generations they came heartbroken and hungry, in search of new life, new hope; today they come in search of opportunity to work in finance, fashion, film. Hundreds of thousands like the parade route in New York, cheering the marching bands, dance troupes and politicians. "We're crazy, the Irish, we're funny and we talk to everyone," said 23-year-old Lauren Dawson, of Paramus, N.J., who came to her first St. Patrick's Day parade. In downtown Chicago, thousands lined the Chicago River and cheered as workers on a boat dumped dye into the water, turning it a bright fluorescent green for at least a few hours in an eye-catching local custom. In a sea of people in green shirts, coats, winter hats, sunglasses and even wigs and beards, 29-year-old Ben May managed to stand out. The Elkhart, Ind., man wore a full leprechaun costume, complete with a tall green hat he had to hold onto in the wind. "I've got a little Irish in me, so I'm supporting the cause," he said. May bought the outfit online to wear to Notre Dame football games. But he figured it was fitting for this occasion too. "I probably will get to drink for free," he said, after posing for a photograph with a group of women. "That's what I'm hoping," said his girlfriend, Angela Gibson. Thousands of revelers gaudily garbed in green crammed the oak-shaded squares and sidewalks of downtown Savannah, Ga., on Saturday, for a celebration that's a 189-year-old tradition. Led by bagpipers in green kilts, a parade kicked off Saturday morning, hours after customers began lining up at downtown bars. More than 1,000 worshippers also packed the pews of the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist for the Mass that traditionally precedes the parade. Bev Kehayes, of Greensboro, N.C., joined friends near the start of the parade route. She made hats with green feathers and flowers just for the occasion. It's good, clean fun. Heaven forbid there's a little alcohol involved," said Kehayes, who says she's missed only three of the celebrations in Savannah in 29 years. In Ireland, Dublin's five-day St. Patrick's Day festival was unfolding with a new addition. For the first time, up to 8,000 visitors from around the world were due to march in a so-called people's parade on Sunday, when Ireland's capital city also intends hold its usual procession of bands and pageantry. A slate of events, which included a student portraying St. Patrick being transported downtown on a manure spreader, were to wrap up with a parade Saturday. New Jersey Transit officials said alcoholic beverages would be prohibited Saturday on any train between Manhattan and Hoboken, N.J., a nightlife-friendly city across the Hudson River. In Baltimore, where last St. Patrick's Day weekend was marred by a videotaped beating of a visiting man, fights and vandalism, police stepped up patrols and barred drinking in an area where revelers spilled out of bars last year.