Gabby Cummings
It’s almost St. Patrick’s Day! What most people don’t know is this holiday to celebrate the luck of the Irish has tons of history. St. Patrick’s Day,also known as the feast of St. Patrick, is a religious festivity held on March 17th. This celebration is based on the death date of Saint Patrick, who died on this day 461 AD. St. Patrick was the patron saint of Ireland, however, he wasn’t actually Irish. He was born in Britain but was later kidnapped at the age of 16 and was taken as a slave in Ireland. Many different myths and legends have been made about him and his life, but nothing is really confirmed.
We don’t only celebrate just to have the shamrock shakes at McDonald's. The people of Ireland use this day to commemorate St. Patrick and his contribution to the conversion of Christianity of the Irish people and his establishment of churches, schools, missionaries, etc. Immigrants from Ireland brought over this holiday and made it widespread and transformed this holiday into a worldly celebration. Today, people all over the country celebrate with parties, parades, leprechauns, and lots of green! Here’s some more interesting facts about this holiday:
The first St. Patrick’s Day celebration in the United States was held in Boston (1737).
Shamrocks are the national flower/emblem of Ireland.
The color of St. Patrick’s Day was originally blue.
Legend says that each leaf of the four-leaf clover has a meaning: Hope, Faith, Love and Luck.
To celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, Chicago dyes the river green for a few hours.
Your odds of finding a four-leaf clover are about 1 in 10,000.
There are 34.7 million U.S. residents with Irish ancestry. This number is more than seven times the population of Ireland itself.