Facts about St. Patrick’s Day to celebrate at home /

Everyone loves St. Patrick’s Day. I mean, how can you not love a fun festival about drinking beer, wearing green and getting together with family and friends? It is the ultimate celebration of Irish culture. And with millions of people around the world sharing Irish roots, it has truly become a global celebration.

Fun facts about St. Patrick’s Day

Having visited Ireland several times, we have been lucky enough to be part of our share of Irish celebrations. There’s a reason St. Patrick’s Day is one of the most fun celebrations in the world. So go to the Beer Store (you Canadians) and grab your cans of Guinness, put on your green shirt and let’s celebrate!

1. Saint Patrick was not Irish

Saint Patrick, a patron saint of Ireland, was actually English. More precisely, he is believed to have come from Wales or Scotland. He was brought to Ireland as a slave around 432 AD. but escaped and after hanging out in Ireland for a few years and working as a shepherd, he returned to England to become a priest. He later returned to Ireland as a Christian missionary.

2. The feast of St. Patrick

After St. Patrick’s death, Ireland dedicated a day to him known as the Feast of St. Patrick. The date of March 17 was chosen because that was the anniversary of his death. St. Patrick died on March 17 in Downpatrick, Ireland. In those days, days of death were more important than birthdays. No one really knew what day they were born, but when they became someone, everyone knew their date of death.

For example, the feast of St. Patrick was celebrated every year on the anniversary of the patron saint’s death. It was a day of celebrations and religious ceremonies. So if St. Patrick’s Day rolls around this year, let’s make it a holiday too!

3. No beer!

Because it was known as the Feast of St. Patrick, St. Patrick’s Day was originally a dry holiday. There was no beer to be found. Instead, St. Patrick’s Day was a day of religious ceremonies and celebrations. In fact, it’s only recently that Ireland started celebrating St. Patrick’s Day with the same alcoholic vigor as the United States.

Only recently have beer and hearty feasts become more popular in Ireland. Some have said it was in 2016, when St. Patrick’s Day celebrated 100 years of Irish Independence, that things really started to take off in Ireland. But from what I can see, things have been going well in Dublin for decades.

4. Four leaf clover

Contrary to popular belief, the four-leaf clover is not associated with St. Patrick’s Day. While the four-leaf clover is considered lucky and associated with good luck in both Irish culture and around the world, it is actually the three-leaf clover that is associated with Saint Patrick.

5. The clover

We recently had a zoom meeting with some prominent St. Patrick’s experts where we learned a bit about Ireland’s St. Patrick’s Day traditions. They told us it was important to wear a Shamrock and badge for the St. Patrick’s Day festivities. The bigger the better. This tradition has been going on in Ireland since the 17th century!

The shamrock has always been considered a sacred plant to the Celts and the Irish. The only reason they could think of it being associated with St. Patrick’s Day is that it is believed that St. Patrick used it as an example when explaining the Holy Trinity while bringing Christianity to Ireland. The three leaves are used to represent the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

6. Green was not the color of choice

Here’s a fact I didn’t know, Ireland’s national color was blue! Blue was always associated with Ireland and St. Patrick’s Day until the 19th century when Ireland became more intertwined with the color green. The Emerald Isle embraced the green and changed their flag to the colors green, white and orange.

It was not until Irish independence that the color green became the symbol of Ireland. But green has always played a strong role in Irish culture with the Shamrock and green harp flag used by the Irish Catholic Confederacy in the 1600s.

7. First St. Patrick’s Day Parade

After doing some research, I found that America first celebrated St. Patrick’s Day in 1601, in St. Augustine, Florida. It was organized by the Irish pastor of the Spanish colony. (this may or may not be true as according to Irish tourism it was indeed first celebrated in 1737 in Boston)

Anyway, the St. Patrick’s Day parade really took hold when it was held in Boston and New York City in 1737. It was the Irish members of the British battalion who came home feeling homesick and nostalgic. They came together for the first St. Patrick’s Day Parade to celebrate their Irish culture.

And now, as they say, the rest is history. America celebrates St. Patrick’s Day more vigorously than Ireland! But Ireland has gained momentum in recent decades and St. Patrick’s Day will forever be linked to Irish culture around the world.

8. Downpatrick, Ireland

If you’re making a pilgrimage to Ireland in the near future (which we highly recommend, it’s our favorite country to visit!) you’ll be able to see St Patrick’s grave in the town of Downpatrick. Located in County Down in Northern Ireland, Down Cathedral dates back to 1183 and houses the remains of St Patrick. In Downpatrick they celebrate the life and legend of St Patrick all year round.

9. St. Patrick’s Center in Northern Ireland

The St. Patrick’s Center in Downpatrick is the only center in the world entirely dedicated to St. Patrick. There’s an Imax experience telling it. And they even have their own Camino on St. Patrick’s Way. I totally do this when we go back to Ireland.

10. The Rock of Cashel – aka St. Patrick’s Rock

Not only is it a beautiful place to visit in Ireland, The Rock of Cashel in Tipperary is associated with St. Patrick. Here he baptized King Aengus, Ireland’s first Christian leader. But I like this legend much more: St. Patrick is said to have banished Satan from a mountain cave. Enraged, Satan took a bite of the mountain and spat it out, creating the Rock of Cashel. With 1000 years of history, it’s one of the coolest places in Ireland we’ve visited.

11. The myth of the snakes

I never knew this before, but legend has it that St. Patrick drew all the snakes from Ireland. Apparently no snakes ever lived in Ireland.

12. Leprechauns and St. Patrick’s Day

Many associated St. Patrick’s Day with Leprechauns right? Well, they have nothing to do with St. Patrick. Leprechauns are part of Irish culture in Irish folklore. They were small people who liked to play pranks on others. During my research, I read that Walt Disney initiated the connection in his movie Darby O’Gill & the Little People starring Sean Connery. (I’m totally going to rent this movie on St. Paddy’s Day)

13. Celebrating Irish Culture – St. Patrick’s Day Traditions

• In the early 1900s, people started dyeing their beer green.
• The river flows through Chicago in the US. (The Chicago River is dyed green every year!)
• People around the world with Irish ancestry gather for this ancient Irish holiday.
• About 70 million people around the world have Irish ancestry. Dave and me included! Dave actually has very deep Irish blood. Watch how Dave discovers his Irish Roots here.
• Irish Americans eat corned beef and cabbage on St. Patrick’s Day. This is not an Irish tradition. In Ireland they ate ham.
• Buildings around the world glow green on St. Patrick’s Day. I’m going to keep an eye on the CN Tower this year!

So now that you know a little more about St. Patrick’s Day when you cheer your pint of Guinness and wear your green, give a nod to Ireland’s patron saint who started it all. Or maybe we should pay more tribute to the homesick Irish immigrants in America who came to celebrate their homeland.

Whatever the reason, St. Patrick’s Day is celebrated around the world with gatherings of greenery and Guinness. We have traveled the world and I can say that there is an Irish pub in almost every city in the world. The Irish are definitely doing something right to celebrate life with a certain Joie de Vivre.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day everyone. Or as they say in Ireland: “Lá Fhéile Pádraig Sona Dhuit. (Law Fey-la Paw-rick Sun-said)