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The History of St. Patrick’s Day

3/9/2022 (Permalink)

All About the Holiday

St. Patrick’s Day is celebrated every year on March 17th. The holiday signifies the importance of the loss of Saint Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland and their national apostle. The Irish have celebrated this holiday for over 1,000 years. St. Patrick’s Day falls during the Christian season of Lent, and many Irish families traditionally attend church in the morning and celebrate in the afternoon. Lent practices such as abstaining from eating meat would be waived, people would spend the day dancing, drinking and feasting on traditional Irish dishes such as bacon and cabbage.

Saint Patrick was born in Roman Britain, where he was kidnapped and brought to Ireland as a slave at 16 years old. Later in life he escaped bondage, but eventually returned to Ireland and was accredited for bringing Christianity to the people there. One of the most known legends about St. Patrick is how he explained the ‘Holy Trinity’ (God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit) using the three leaves of a shamrock, which is an Irish clover.

Fun Fact: More than 100 St. Patrick’s Day parades are held across the United States, with Boston and New York hosting the largest celebrations.

When St. Patrick’s Day Celebrations First Began

People in Ireland have been observing the Roman Catholic feast day of St. Patrick since the ninth or tenth century. Surprisingly, the first St. Patrick’s Day parade didn’t take place in Ireland, it happened in America. According to national records, a St. Patty’s Day parade was held on March 17, 1601, in a Spanish colony now known as St. Augustine, Florida. More than a century later, Irish soldiers serving in the English military marched in New York City on March 17, 1772, in honor of the patron saint.

Over the next 40 years, Irish patriotism among U.S. immigrants became more popular, prompting the rise of the ‘Irish Aid’ societies such as the ‘Friendly Sons of Saint Patrick’ and the ‘Hibernian Society’. Each group would hold annual parades featuring bagpipes and drums.

In 1848, New York Irish Aid societies decided to unite the parades to form one official New York City's St. Patrick’s Day parade. Today, that parade is the world’s oldest civilian parade and the largest that takes place in the U.S., with over 150,000 participants each year. Nearly 3 million people line the 1.5 mile parade route each year to watch the procession, which is a little over 5 hours long.

Fun Fact: When the great Potato Famine hit Ireland in 1845, around 1 million Irish Catholics began coming into America to escape starvation.

Leprechauns and St. Patrick's Day Celebrations Around the Globe

One popular icon of the holiday is the leprechaun. The Irish name for these figures is ‘lobaircin’ meaning “small bodied fellow”. The Irish people's belief in leprechauns originates from the Celtic folklore surrounding fairies. According to legend, fairies are tiny men and women who could use their magical powers to serve good or evil. In Celtic folktales, leprechauns were cranky souls, responsible for mending the shoes of the other fairies. To celebrate the holiday, many people dress up as the wily fairies on St. Patrick’s Day as a part of the festivities.

Today people of all backgrounds and ethnicities celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, especially in the U.S. Although the largest celebrations take place in America, countries such as Ireland, Japan, and Russia have extravagant celebrations as well. In Modern day Ireland, St. Patrick’s Day has traditionally been known as a religious holiday. Up until the 1970s, Irish law dictated that all pubs be closed on March 17th. Today, the Irish government uses interest in the holiday to ramp up tourism to showcase Irish culture to the rest of the world.

Green Isn’t Just for St. Patrick’s Day, at SERVPRO® We Rock it All Year Round! We are Here to Help® 24/7/365, give us a call 706-843-1990 today.

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