Happy St Patrick’s Day to all the Irish (and people who want to celebrate regardless) today.
The fact this one falls on a Saturday likely means there’s going to be a lot of debauchery tonight, and we doubt you’ll be able to move in any given high-street O’Neill’s.
However, it’s important to know what we’re all celebrating, and that of course is the Patron Saint of Ireland – St Patrick himself.
His life was certainly eventful, and he’s credited with converting Ireland to Christianity from around AD 385 to his death in about AD 461.
Find out more about the saint here, so you at least have some context to your relentless Guinness consumption.
Saint Patrick isn’t actually Irish. He was born in either England, Scotland, or Wales (depending on which academic you ask).
At the age of 16, Patrick was kidnapped by Irish raiders who took him away and sold him as a slave. He worked as a sheep farmer for them until 22, when he escaped and ran away to a monastery.
The reason the shamrock is used to represent Ireland and St Patrick is because he used the three leaves to teach people about the Holy Trinity.
The story about St Patrick driving the snakes out of Ireland might not be true. It’s more likely that there were never any snakes in Ireland, and instead they represent Paganism, which Patrick sought to convert people from (to Catholicism).
Irish law, from 1903 to 1970, declared St. Patrick’s Day a religious observance for the entire country meaning that all pubs were shut down for the day.
The odds of finding a four-leaf clover are about 1 in 10,000.
The heavy drinking on St Patrick’s Day allegedly comes from Patrick himself chastising a bartender who gave him a small measure of whisky.
It’s not just Ireland that celebrates Paddy’s Day. Parts of Canada have it as a public holiday, as does the Caribbean island of Monserrat.
The church tends to give people a free pass on breaking their Lenten fast for St Patrick’s, which is why people often go a bit overboard on the day.
There’s a custom known as ‘drowning the shamrock’, where you wear a shamrock that on your lapel or hat and put in the last drink of the evening.
In Chicago, they dye the river green as a celebration.
Blue was actually the original colour of Patrick’s vestments, and so it’s not exactly clear where the green clothes/food/everything tradition came from.
Around 34 million modern Americans claim Irish ancestry. This might be why the biggest St Patrick’s Day parade is held in New York.