A quick look at St. Patrick’s Day

Today Ireland celebrates St. Patrick’s Day, without doubt the most popular Irish holiday around the world with festivities organised even in countries with a miniscule Irish community. Here are some quick facts about this popular celebration:

St. Patrick is responsible for converting the people of Ireland to Christianity.
The real St. Patrick wasn’t Irish. He was born in Britain around A.D. 390 to an aristocratic Christian family. His birth name was Maewyn Succat, but he changed his name to Patricius after becoming a priest. At 16, he was kidnapped and sent to tend sheep as a slave in Ireland for seven years. He got a religious conversion while he was there and became a very deeply believing Christian. After he died on March 17, 461, Patrick was largely forgotten. But slowly, mythology grew around Patrick, and centuries later he was honoured as the patron saint of Ireland
St. Patrick’s Day is an Irish national holiday with banks, stores, and businesses closing for the day in both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. It is a provincial holiday in the Canadian province of Newfoundland.
Shamrocks are the national flower/emblem of Ireland. Legend has it that St Patrick used the three leaves of a shamrock to explain the Christian holy trinity: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
The Trifolium dubium, is the wild-growing, three-leaf clover that some botanists consider the official shamrock, is an annual plant that germinates in the spring. But botanists say there’s nothing uniquely Irish about shamrocks. Most clover species can be found throughout Europe.
He is credited with having driven the snakes out of Ireland. However, most biologists maintain there never were snakes 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. The big festivity of today was basically invented in America by Irish-Americans. Eighteenth-century Irish soldiers fighting with the British in the U.S. Revolutionary War held the first St. Patrick’s Day parades.
His colour was “Saint Patrick’s blue,” a light shade. The colour green only became associated with the big day after it was linked to the Irish independence movement in the late 18th century. In 1798, the colour green became officially associated with the day.
On Patrick’s Day, up to 13 million pints of Guinness are consumed. A 2012 estimate pegged the total amount spent on beer in general for Saint Patrick’s Day celebrations at $245 million.
Corned beef and cabbage, a traditional Saint Patrick’s Day food.
More than 100 Saint Patrick parades are held across the United States. Almost 12% of Americans claim Irish ancestry. More people of Irish ancestry live in the United States than in Ireland. More than 450 churches are named for St Patrick in the United States.
It is one of the Irish tradition to pinch someone who is not wearing green on the day.