English is fun!: St. Patrick's Day

Background

Saint Patrick's Day, or the Feast of Saint Patrick, is a cultural and religious celebration held on March 17th, the traditional death date of Saint Patrick (c. AD 385–461), the foremost patron saint of Ireland.

Patrick was a 5th-century Romano-British Christian missionary and bishop in Ireland. He is credited for converting the pagan (the Celts) into Christianity and bring Cristianity to Ireland.

Customs and Symbols

Wearing of the Green

On St Patrick's Day it is customary to wear shamrocks and/or green clothing or accessories (the "wearing of the green"). In Ireland, people wear shamrocks on their lapels and attend religious services since it is a religious holiday, In the United States, if you don't wear green on the Day, you'll be pinched by someone.

The colour green has been associated with Ireland since at least the 1640s. Green ribbons and shamrocks have been worn on St Patrick's Day since at least the 1680s. Ireland is known as "the Emerald Isle" because of the greenness of its countryside.

Shamrock

St Patrick is said to have used the shamrock, a three-leaved plant, to explain the mystery of the Holy Trinity to the pagan Irish. The plant soon became associated with the holiday and people wear it as a symbol of St. Patrick.

St. Patrick's Day in the United States

Many Irish people have emigrated from Ireland to the United States over the last few centuries. They brought St. Patrick's Day with them. St. Patrick's Day is a serious religious holiday in Ireland, but it has been changed quite a bit in America. In the U.S. it has become more of a secular celebration enjoyed not only by Irish-Americans but but most Americans in general, regardless of ancestry.

St Patrick's Day in the United States is primarily celebrated as a recognition of Irish and Irish American culture; celebrations include prominent displays of the color green, eating and drinking, religious observances, and numerous parades. The holiday has been celebrated on the North American continent since the late 18th century.

For most Irish-Americans, this holiday is both religious and festive. It is one of the leading days for consumption of alcohol in the United States, as individuals are allowed to break their Lenten sacrifices for the day in order to celebrate Saint Patrick's Day. The consumption of artificially colored green beer is a common celebration in most cities and specially universities.

The holiday has been criticized for promoting over-indulgence in alcohol, resulting in drunk driving, property damage, absenteeism, public urination and vomiting, and other ill effects.

Many people choose to wear green colored clothing and items. Traditionally, those who are caught not wearing green are pinched "affectionately".

Modern St. Patrick's Day celebrations as we know them today derived from the United States, where it is celebrated with large parades and beer drinking parties at bars and pubs. Since it has become a celebration of Irish culture, many other symbols have been associated with the holiday, such as leprechauns.

A Leprechaun is an Irish fairy who it is said to have a pot of gold hidden at the end of a rainbow. Legend has it that, if you catch a leprechaun he has to grant you three wishes but, you must not take your ayes away from him, or you will lose your chances of getting his gold.

St. Patrick's Day celebrations across the United States.

The first St. Patrick's Day was observed in America in colonial Boston in 1737 with a religious observance and dinner organized by Irish immigrants.

Seattle and other cities paint the traffic stripe of their parade routes green. Savannah, with a large Irish-American population throws a large parade and dyes its public fountains green. Chicago dyes its river green and has done so since 1962.

The city of Chicago has many different Saint Patrick's Day celebrations, the most famous being the dyeing of the Chicago River. Each year, the city hosts a parade downtown, which is preceded by the dyeing of the Chicago River. The dyeing of the river involves thousands of people lining the banks of the river and watching as a boat releases dye into the river and turns the river a kelly green color. The Chicago Journeymen Plumbers Union Local 130 has historically sponsored the river dyeing and know the secret to the dye mix.

The New York parade not only has become the largest Saint Patrick's Day parade in the world but is also the oldest civilian parade in the world. In a typical year, 150,000 marchers participate in it, including bands, firefighters, military and police groups, county associations, emigrant societies and social and cultural clubs with two million spectators line the streets.

Today, around 100 cities across the United States celebrate St. Patrick's Day and it has also become a worldwide celebration spanding to other countries with Irish immigrants.