Crowds are lining Fifth Avenue this afternoon for the 250th annual St. Patrick's Day Parade.
Novelist Mary Higgins Clark is serving as the parade's grand marshal.
About 200,000 marchers, including bands and traditional Irish step dancers, stepped off at 11 o'clock to the cheers of an estimated two-million spectators.
All branches of the military are represented in today's parade.
"With all the bands that are going by, I just love the sound of the music," said one reveler. "It's great. I love it."
"I'm not Irish but it's nice that they celebrate the Irish heritage," said another.
The parade has been shortened by seven-blocks this year, running from 44th Street to 79th Street, to comply with new city rules cutting down the length of all parades.
"I'm still getting my head around it. In Ireland, St. Patrick's Day is a religious holiday and yes, it's become more commercial, but here, everyone wearing green, it's amazing," said one participant.
Before the parade stepped off, Catholics came out to celebrate mass at Saint Patrick's Cathedral.
Archbishop Timothy Dolan led the morning service.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn were among the hundreds who came to remember Saint Patrick on the anniversary of his death. Patrick was a young, enslaved Briton in Ireland, who later spread Christianity throughout the land.
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