When Spring Festival ended in February, most Chinese people didn't expect another holiday until Qingming Festival, or Tomb Sweeping Day, in early April. On March 17, however, a few dozen bewildered Zhengzhou residents had those expectations blown wide open.

March 17 is St. Patrick's Day, an Irish Catholic celebration of the patron saint from whom the holiday takes its name. For many, it is a celebration of all things Irish, focusing on everything from church services to Irish symbols like shamrocks and the color green. It's a day often marked by parades, and last but not least, a day when people consume plenty of alcohol.

Except for the church, all of these came together in the streets of Zhengzhou this year, and what a spectacle it was.

The Irish community here has expanded considerably in the past year, with some great new additions bolstering the ranks of long-time community members. They felt the time was right to give their adopted home a taste of their true home, and they included the rest of us for good measure.

The proceedings began around 7 pm at Bird Bar, a reggae-style bar. By the time I walked in, all was in place.

Nearly the entire bar was wearing green, and there were hats, wigs, and props being passed around, along with a steady flow of beer and Irish whiskey. It was a good time and brought back good memories (Americans also like St. Patty's Day), but on first glance it also looked like a standard night out, just draped in green.

It wasn't until I stepped back outside that I saw what really sent the night into Zhengzhou's history books.

Somebody had hooked a cart to a bicycle and attached a large plank of wood on top of the cart - there was going to be a St. Patrick's Day Parade through the streets of Zhengzhou. As chaotic attempts at Irish step-dancing took place on the sidewalk, the rest of us began blowing up green balloons and attaching them to the makeshift float.

The float started to look good, and excitement mounted until it was time. Somebody was chosen to mount the cart and we took off down the street toward Target, another bar.

Suddenly half of us had toy noisemakers, there was a flute playing, and someone had a guitar and was leading sing-alongs as we spilled down the street.

One friend who was dressed as a leprechaun, a character from Irish mythology known for his elusive pot of gold, had a bag of chocolate coins wrapped in gold foil which he was distributing to Chinese passers-by. I saw him throw one into the open window of a car that stopped alongside us, much to the inhabitants' surprise.

By the time we neared the bar, the parade included a scattered crowd of curious locals standing on the outskirts and snapping photographs in amazement.

Had it been Christmas they'd have been less surprised, but they thought this was a normal Thursday night. There had been nothing to indicate to them that they would encounter a raucous Western tradition in their own streets after the sun had gone down.

Noise and energy continued to swirl as the float stopped and we reached the bar, where we stopped for more silliness and photo ops before proceeding into the beloved drinking hole.

To the city outside it was over as quickly as it began, and Qingming was once again the next holiday on the horizon. But for those people who had crossed our paths that night, a new possibility suddenly existed - that on any given night, you may turn a corner and be confronted by crazy foreigners in green pope hats throwing candy coins around and dancing after a homemade parade float.