The Garden State is going green! <\/p>\n
New Jersey saw a meteoric rise in interest for St. Patrick\u2019s Day celebrations over the last three years, according to a new study.<\/p>\n
Jersey, which is regularly ranked as one of the most Irish in the US<\/a>, is slowly but surely inching towards taking its place as the East Coast\u2019s St. Paddy\u2019s Day hotspot, as interest in festivities in states with deeper Irish history like Massachusetts remains relatively stagnant.<\/p>\n Public interest in Massachusetts\u2019 St. Pat\u2019s parties is waning, despite appearing as the reigning champion for all things Irish, according to a new study shared by BETMGM<\/a> in late February.<\/p>\n New Jersey ranked as a rising hotspot for \u201cthe hardest\u201d St. Patrick\u2019s Day parties. Anadolu via Getty Images<\/p>\n The BETMGM study recorded a 10% spike in interest in St. Patrick\u2019s Day festivities in New Jersey. Getty Images<\/p>\n The study recorded \u201cmeaningful gains in celebration intensity\u201d using Google Trends data relating to St. Patrick\u2019s Day hallmarks \u2014 namely, alcohol and green paraphernalia. It weighed those demonstrated \u201cinterest levels\u201d with each state\u2019s available \u201cIrish ancestry population data\u201d to estimate how traction may be shifting.<\/p>\n Seventeen states that either didn\u2019t have Irish ancestry data available or failed to \u201cmeet reporting thresholds,\u201d including New York, were excluded from the study.<\/p>\n Still, New Jersey towered over the 33 states that were analyzed. The Garden State saw an estimated 10% spike in \u201ccelebration intensity,\u201d with snoozer states like Indiana and Iowa also clinching high ranks.<\/p>\n Comparatively, Massachusetts saw a slim 1% boost.<\/p>\n Massachusetts recorded a slim 1% uptick in celebration interest. Vadym Huzhva \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n More than 15 parades are held in New Jersey throughout March each year, all to celebrate St. Patrick\u2019s Day. <\/p>\n South Boston\u2019s 3.5-mile parade almost always sees the largest turnout of any celebration in the country, in part because it\u2019s held on a Sunday \u2014 rather than the day of St. Patrick\u2019s Day \u2014 and is easily accessible to students attending the dozens of colleges in the area.<\/p>\n Even though New York wasn\u2019t featured on the list, urbanites in the Big Apple don\u2019t mess around with St. Patrick\u2019s Day.<\/p>\n New York wasn\u2019t part of the study. Pixel-Shot \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n Staten Island\u2019s St. Patrick\u2019s Day Parade, held on March 1, was plagued by repeated snafus this year.<\/p>\n First, locals were outraged by the \u201cinsensitive\u201d decision to host the parade<\/a> when it was clear the snow left by back-to-back winter storms wouldn\u2019t melt by the beginning of March.<\/p>\n Then, when the parade did go off on the snow-clogged streets, it was delayed by a lone Target bag left near the starting point, which police probed as a possible improvised explosive device<\/a>.<\/p>\n