Montrealers find ways to revel on St. Patrick's Day — from a distance

It's a St. Patrick's Day like no other in Montreal and around the world.

The parade set for Sunday has been cancelled, and the bars are closed. Many other Quebec businesses are scaling back hours or closing entirely, and restaurants are asked to stay below operating at half capacity, to allow for extra room between tables.

"This is the quietest it's ever been any day of the week," said Stuart Ashton, one of the owners of McLean's Pub in downtown Montreal on a live video posted to social media Tuesday afternoon.

"Saint Patrick's Day is a very special day for all of us, and it's a bloody shame that we can't all have it together, but it's necessary," Ashton says, before downing a shot of Irish whiskey.

With Montrealers huddled at home, exercising social distancing, many are making their own virtual party — like Alison Aylward, who is having video chats with family members abroad.

"It's a way for us to communally bond in a really difficult time," she said.

"We got lots of cards. It's a little bit like Valentine's, but green."

She created a kind of Irish Christmas morning too, complete with a leprechaun visit and crafts and green treats for her nine-year-old daughter, Sophia Audet.

Amanda Barnes, who owns Crèmerie Valois, an ice-cream shop and espresso bar in Pointe-Claire, says she closed the shop out of caution Sunday when the new regulations on bars and restaurants were announced.

"We're really a gathering place," she said about her shop, which holds events for new moms and hosts birthday parties. But she said it's important to set an example.

"My five-year-old thinks we're on vacation," she said. They've been doing puzzles and playing board games and taking short walks outdoors. And they're celebrating St. Patrick's Day with green pancakes.

"We would have done a grand event for St. Patrick's Day here at the shop. So I wanted him to feel like things were still happening," she said.

With people still going for walks in the neighbourhood, she thought that she and her son Charlie could spread a little Irish cheer by painting shamrocks on their windows.

Aylward and Sophia are going on their own shamrock hunt today, driving around NDG to look for others who have put up St. Patrick's Day window decorations.

As they drive by, they'll wave and blow kisses at fellow Montrealers stuck inside their homes.

Sophia may even get a prize if she spots some clovers.

"It's up to St. Patrick," said Aylward, with a laugh.