Saint Patrick's Day

Saint Patrick's Day (March 17), is the Irish feast day which celebrates Saint Patrick (386-461), the patron saint of Ireland. It is celebrated worldwide by the Irish and those of Irish descent and increasingly by many of non-Irish descent.

St Patrick's Day Parade
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As well as being a celebration of Irish culture, St. Patrick's Day is a Christian festival celebrated in the Roman Catholic Church, the Church of Ireland (among other churches in the Anglican Communion) and some other denominations. However, as a Christian festival, St. Patrick's Day sometimes is required to give way to a more important feast. The day always falls in the season of Lent, and it may fall in Holy Week. In church calendars, though rarely in secular ones, if St. Patrick's Day falls on a Sunday, it is moved to the following Monday. If it falls in Holy Week, it is moved to the second Monday after Easter. In Ireland it is traditional that those observing a lenten fast may break it for the duration of St. Patrick's Day (as well as many American Roman Catholic dioceses which contain a large percentage of Irish American parishoners.

St Patrick's Day Celebrations in Ireland

Some people believe St.Patrick's day is a bigger holiday in the U.S than it is in Ireland, however, despite this, many Americans travel to Ireland for the festivities.

St. Patrick's Day parades in Ireland date from the late 19th century, originating in the growing sense of nationalism of the period. A major parade takes place in Dublin and in most other Irish towns and villages on Saint Patrick's Day.

Many Irish people still wear a bunch of shamrock on their lapels or caps on this day, while children wear tri-colour (green, white and orange) badges. Girls traditionally wore green ribbons in their hair and many still do.

The biggest celebrations in Ireland outside Dublin are in Downpatrick, where Saint Patrick was buried following his death on March 17, 461. In Downpatrick in 2004, according to Down District Council, the parade, during the week-long St. Patrick's Festival, had over 2000 participants and 82 floats, bands and performers. The parade was watched by over 30,000 people.

St Patrick's Day Celebrations outside Ireland

In many parts of the U.S., Britain, and Australia, expatriate Irish, those of Irish descent, and ever-growing crowds of people with no Irish connections but who may proclaim themselves "Irish for a day" also celebrate St. Patrick's Day, usually by consuming large quantities of alcoholic beverages, including lager often dyed green, Irish beer, such as Murphys, Smithwicks, Harp or Guinness, or other Irish liquors such as Irish whiskey, Irish Coffee or Baileys Irish Cream, by wearing at least one article of green-colored clothing, and by listening to Irish folk music. (Former Mayor of New York Ed Koch once proclaimed himself "Ed O'Koch" for the day and is one of the most famous people of non-Irish descent to publicly revel on the holiday.)

Children in the U.S. celebrate St. Patrick's day by wearing green colored clothing and items. Traditionally, those who are caught not wearing green are pinched, leading to several St. Patrick's Day items hosting phrases such as "Can't pinch me!" It's also said, and shown in the TV show Angela Anaconda, that if you pinch someone wearing green, everyone else can double pinch you back, even if you are wearing green. Such acts are not as common in Ireland.

The largest Saint Patrick's Day parade in the world is held in New York. Large parades are also held in Manchester and Montreal, with smaller parades in many other places, including London, Paris, Rome, Munich, Moscow, Beijing, Hong Kong, Singapore, Copenhagen and throughout the Americas. The smallest parade is said to take place in Hot Springs, Arkansas in the United States; this parade is less than a single city block and is nevertheless the highlight of the day. Boulder, Colorado also claims to have the shortest parade which is also less than a single city block.

The New York St Patrick's Day parade dates back to 1762, and in 2003 more than 150,000 marchers participated, including bands, military and police groups, county associations, emigrant societies, social and cultural clubs. The parade marches up 5th Avenue in Manhattan and it attracts roughly 2 million people. The New York parade is moved to the previous Saturday (March 16) in years where March 17 is a Sunday. The event is also moved on the rare occasions when, due to Easter falling on a very early date, March 17 would land in Holy Week—this last occurred in 1913, when the parade was held on Saturday, March 15 because Easter that year was March 23 (making March 17 the Monday of Holy Week); this same scenario is scheduled to arise again in 2008, when Easter will also fall on March 23.

Some U.S. cities paint the traffic stripe of their parade routes green. Others, including Chicago, dye their principal rivers green, an act that most native Irish find bizarre.