Celebrating Irish Culture in Lowell

With St. Patrick’s Day just around the corner, there will be plenty of events celebrating Lowell's Irish community. Experience the wonderful celebration filled with food, live music and dancing!

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Lowell Irish Cultural Committee will host their 35th annual Lowell Irish Cultural Week. Events scheduled include concerts and movie nights. On Saturday, March 10th, the Committee hosts a Dinner Dance featuring live music by the Silver Spears Irish Band and the annual Lucky Leprechaun $5 raffle. Tickets for the Dinner Dance are $39. On Sunday, March 11th, enjoy a free event at the Lowell Lodge of Elks featuring Traditional Ceili Dancing, or Irish Folk Dancing. For more information on Lowell Irish Cultural Committee and their events, click here.

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This year, Cobblestones celebrates their 24th St. Patrick’s Day with style and the luck of the Irish. On the day of honor, March 17th, they will host “St. Paddy’s Day at O’Cobbletsones.” The menu will feature the traditional corned beef and cabbage dinner, along with drink specials.

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There are also many other establishments that will be having live entertainment and classic Irish dishes. Fuse Bistro will have live music from 2-6 PM on March 17th, along with their house cured corned beef and cabbage. Garcia Brogan's will celebrate all weekend opening at 8 AM on the 17th to serve Irish breakfast. They will have a live show of traditional Irish music from Tom Courtney starting at 12 PM, and Whiskey Tango at 9 PM on the 18th.  For a city restaurant guide, click here.

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To wrap up a weekend of fun, join us for the kick off of the Wellness on the Walkways series! This urban hike is free and from 2-4 PM on Sunday, March 18th. The meeting point of this two mile walk along the Merrimack River is at the Lowell National Historic Park Visitor Center at 246 Market Street. For more information, click here.

Looking Back at the Origin of City of Lights

As the annual City of Lights Parade and Celebration approaches, I spent an afternoon at the UMass Lowell Center for Lowell History and looked through Father Armand "Spike" Morissette’s collection of documents from the early days of the City of Lights Parade. What began as a project and symbol of “Faith in Lowell” has now become an honored tradition for the city’s community and the beginning of holiday season festivities.  Below are some of the events’ traditions that began in the 1950s and have evolved into today’s celebration.

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Lighting the City

The City of Lights organizers wanted to demonstrate the vibrancy and joy of the holiday spirit and decided there was no better way to do so than to light up the city with lights.  Lighting of public buildings, monuments, stores and homes was encouraged.  The lights would not only fill the streets with local residents enjoying the brilliant display, but also bring people from neighboring communities to experience the beauty of a city glowing in light.   After a hiatus and a decline in the number of lighting displays, the City of Lights theme was resurrected in the late 1980s/early 1990s through a partnership between the city and private businesses.  Some 50,000 new lights and unique decorations were installed.  A holiday stroll grew into a holiday parade.  Nowadays, the tradition continues with an estimated 60,000 lights that bring the holidays to life and serve as the official start of the holiday season for many.  The City of Lights program from the 1952-1953 season began this honored tradition, one that is as popular as ever six decades later.

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Music and Poetry

With holiday singalongs, caroling, concerts, movies and more fun entertainment in the City of Lights Parade this year, it’s no secret that the community loves to be entertained.  The origin of the City of Lights shows that this tradition goes back to the 1950s when music and poetry defined the entertainment of the Parade at the time. Songs like “Lights On In Lowell Town” written about the City of Lights by Paul Bordeleau and Henry Fournier were the embodiment of bringing the holidays alive in the community. Poems were the other big form of entertainment, with a poem called “Christmas Lights” being printed on the back of the City of Lights 1952-53 program book.  Other poems were included in the actual event, with local poets being chosen to have their poem become the “Official City of Lights Poem” every year.

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Contests and Activities

Nowadays, the Parade includes a multitude of activities such as the Festival of Wreaths, Photos with Santa, Strolling Carolers through Downtown and more. In the 1950s, many of the activities revolved around garnering participation for the City of Lights project. Contests helped do this, especially when it came to decorating. Home decoration contests allowed the community to get involved in the celebration and to show how festive they were in decorating their home. These contests had first, second and third place plaques that were awarded. Today, downtown stores compete in a window decorating contest and eateries compete in the Hot Chocolate Competition.  It’s delightful to see how the activities have grown through the years and how the spirit of the early City of Lights program continues today and displays Lowell’s love for holiday festivities.