The 2012 NY Saint Patrick's Day Parade starts at 44th Street at 11:00 am and is held every March 17th, except when March 17th falls on a Sunday, it is celebrated the day before, Saturday the 16th due to religious observances. The parade marches up Fifth Avenue past St. Patrick's Cathedral at 50th Street all the way up past the American Irish Historical Society at 83rd and the Metropolitan Museum of Art at 83rd Street to 86th Street, where the parade finishes at around 4:30 - 5:00 pm. The New York City St. Patrick's Day Parade is our country’s oldest and proudest Irish tradition, marching for the first time 250 years ago, on March 17, 1762 - fourteen years before the Declaration of Independence. To avoid the crowds that pack the sidewalks below 59th Street, go anywhere North of 66th Street and Fifth Avenue.