Happy St. Patrick's Day, Fox Nation!

Much of the world is turning green Wednesday for St. Patrick's Day, the annual celebration of all hues of Irishness.

More than a half-million people lined the 3-kilometer (2-mile) route of the flagship Dublin parade beneath unusually sunny skies in this wet, windy land. The parade's theme "The Extraordinary World" celebrated Ireland's increasing multiculturalism as well as the global spread of the Irish.

Mixed in with the usual displays of U.S. marching bands and Irish sporting heroes were dancing troupes from Africa and India, bands from Austria and France, giant insect floats from Spain, and Dubliners dancing with mops and dusters.

The biggest laughs came from Waterford's entry: man-sized eggs with legs fighting bakers armed with wooden spoons. A singer standing in the middle of a massive frying pan and atop a similarly oversized fried egg belted out renditions of "Do the Funky Chicken" and "Ain't Nobody Here But Us Chickens."

This year Ireland is pushing itself especially hard as a tourist destination as the country faces its worst recession since the Great Depression, with double-digit unemployment and net emigration back for the first time in 15 years.

St. Patrick's Day is Ireland's first major tourist event of the year, packing hotels and pubs with visitors seeking an all-night party. Ireland's weeklong festival gets bigger each year, with more than 100 parades Wednesday in cities, towns and villages across the island of 6 million.