St. Patrick’s Day: 10 Fascinating Facts About This Holiday
“St. Patrick’s Day is an enchanted time – a day to begin transforming winter’s dreams into summer’s magic.” Adrienne Cook
1.”Saint Patrick’s Day or the Feast of Saint Patrick (Irish: Lá Fhéile Pádraig, “the Day of the Festival of Patrick”) is a cultural and religious holiday celebrated annually on 17 March, the death date of the patron saint of Ireland, Saint Patrick (c. AD 385–461).”
2.”St. Patrick’s Day marks the Roman Catholic feast day for Ireland’s patron saint, who died in the 5th century. St. Patrick (Patricius in Latin) was not born in Ireland, but in Britain.”
3.”St. Patrick was kidnapped at 16 and brought to Ireland. He was sold as a slave in the county of Antrim and served in bondage for six years until he escaped to Gaul, in present-day France. He later returned to his parents’ home in Britain, where he had a vision that he would preach to the Irish. After 14 years of study, Patrick returned to Ireland, where he built churches and spread the Christian faith for some 30 years.”
4. “St. Patrick’s Day revelers wear a shamrock. Trifolium dubium, the wild-growing, three-leaf clover that some botanists consider the official shamrock, is an annual plant that germinates in the spring. According to St. Patrick’s Day lore, Patrick used the three leaves of a shamrock to explain the Christian holy trinity: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.”
Happy Saint Patrick’s Day! One of the joys of this day of revelry and parades is how much fun and creativity goes into celebrating this day. The parades showcase the best of Ireland and it’s immigrant population around the world, and people gather to toast to Saint Paddy and drink a Guinness stout in his memory. Of course, all the celebratory zeal means the parades linger on for quite a while and many don’t want it to end. In this post, the block quotes, above and below, share ten insightful facts about this special day. Take a moment to read them.
“May you live to be a hundred years, With one extra year to repent.” Irish Blessing
5.One of the best known myths about this popular saint is that Patrick drove all the snakes from Ireland into the Irish Sea, where the serpents drowned. What about Leprechauns? They have nothing to do with this day and until the 19thC, these folklore characters wore red instead of green clothing.
6.”Colonial New York City hosted the first official St. Patrick’s Day parade in 1762, when Irish immigrants in the British colonial army marched down city streets. Dublin’s St. Patrick’s Day parade is little more than 75 years old.”
7.”In 1903, Saint Patrick’s Day became an official public holiday in Ireland. Until the 1970s, St. Patrick’s Day in Ireland was a minor religious holiday. A priest would acknowledge the feast day, and families would celebrate with a big meal, but that was about it.” Some say that St. Patrick’s Day was invented in America by Irish-Americans and the U.S. tradition of St. Patrick’s Day parades, packed pubs, and green has become popular in Ireland.
One special joy I have about this day is seeing the sea of green passing by as the parade winds it’s way around the city. It is always fascinating to see the different groups of Irish Immigrants, celebrities, political and social entities join in the camaraderie of the day, as the official paraders try to outpace each other in their fascinating garb and entertainment. You are always entertained and I’d add that there is never a dull moment during the parade. Above are more facts to chew on and there is more below.
“May you always walk in sunshine.
May you never want for more.
May Irish angels rest their wings right beside your door.”
8.In the United States, it’s customary to wear green on St. Patrick’s Day. While the color green has been associated with Ireland since at least the 1640s, the color was long considered to be unlucky in some parts of Ireland. In the US, the green color took over in many ways; Since 1962, Chicago has been famous for dyeing the Chicago River green on St. Patrick’s Day.
9.”In the mid-1990s the government of the Republic of Ireland began a campaign to use Saint Patrick’s Day to showcase Ireland and its culture”; with a festival as the end goal. The first Saint Patrick’s Festival was held on 17 March 1996. Every St. Patrick’s Day, revelers raise a pint of stout and wish their companions “Slainté!”—the Irish word, pronounced SLAN-cha, for “health.” While drinking is a part of the festivities, it wasn’t until the 1970s when people could drink in pubs on this day. Before, Pubs in Ireland were closed on St. Patrick’s Day because it’s both a cultural and a national religious holiday.
10. New York’s St. Patrick’s Day parade is the longest running civilian parade in the world, followed by Montreal and Dublin. The shortest St Patrick’s Day parade in the world is in Dripsey, Cork. It lasts 100 yards which is the distance between the village’s two pubs.
As they say, it helps to go beyond the blarney for our facts, and the fascinating information above help us get there. Have you ever attended the Saint Patrick’s Day Parade? What has been your experience? I know that for those of us who join in the celebration, it is an occasion to let down our hair and enjoy the good food, drinks, and songs shared. So to everyone, Happy Saint Patrick’s Day and Slainté! (To your health).
This post was only partly inspired by a prompt from WP Daily Post:Daily Prompt: Linger. Tell us about times in which you linger — when you don’t want an event, or a day to end. What is it you love about these times? Why do you wish you could linger forever?
Positive Motivation Tip: Celebrate St. Patrick’s Day today and all that you are; unique, unusual, unabashed, unadulterated, unapologetic YOU!
PHOTO CREDITS/ATTRIBUTIONS: All Photos via Wikipedia, National Geographic,