Gone but not forgotten. Photo by Michael Gordon
He’d grown a little frail in his old age. Still, when he finally went to hog heaven, he broke a lot of hearts.
And so it is that, eight months after his sad public demise along the 2017 County Ventura St. Patrick’s Day Parade route, the Great Inflatable Green Pig – everyone’s favorite parade entry for 26 years – will be remembered this month in a mass community wake along Main Street in historic downtown Ventura.
The final procession of our porcine pal will begin at 5 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 30, in the parking lot at the Museum of Ventura County, at 100 E. Main St.
A throng of public mourners will join city dignitaries, St. Patrick’s Day Parade Committee members, pall bearers hoisting the casketed pig aloft and four bagpipers as they make their way down Main Street to celebrate the pig’s life and enjoy some libations along the way.
The Great Inflatable Green Pig – also lovingly known as Pig o’ My Heart and Shamhock – collapsed from exhaustion and passed on March 11, in view of the parade judges among many others, on the occasion of Ventura County’s 29th annual St. Patty’s Day Parade.
To properly honor his memory, the parade committee spent months planning this fitting Irish Wake and Memorial Procession on his behalf.
The public is invited to come out and help celebrate a pig’s life well lived and pay their respects to the end of a true legend.
For more information, email parade co-chair Nan Drake at [email protected], parade co-chair Jim Monahan at [email protected] or parade committee member Tim O’Neil at [email protected].
