St. Patrick’s Day
March 17, 2010 by Jerry Reth · Leave a Comment
St. Patrick’s Day – While St. Patrick’s Day of the now may be about over drinking and feeling terrible the morning after, it wasn’t always that way. St. Patrick’s Day is celebrated around the world on the seventeenth of March, every year. The holiday is named after Saint Patrick, who is among the most known of the patron saints of Ireland. When the holiday was first created, it was actually a religious holiday. A far cry from the way that the holiday is celebrated in many countries now. In Ireland, St Patrick’s day is considered to be national holiday, and many businesses and schools are not open at all on the holiday.
Did you know that when St. Patrick’s Day was first celebrated, the vast majority of people associated the holiday with wearing the color blue, and not green? Many do not know that, but it is true. Saint Patrick himself was never known to wear much green. It was in the 17th century that individuals started wearing green, in combination with shamrocks on Saint Patrick’s Day. Little is known about why this holiday transition took place, but it did stick over the years and today everyone who celebrates Saint Patrick’s Day wears green.
Saint Patrick has been celebrated in Ireland for over four hundred years. It was only recently that the celebration of Saint Patrick’s Day started to spread to other areas of the world and became a world wide celebration of the most recognizable patron saint in the history of Ireland. Many towns and cities in Ireland have their own concerts, festivals and parades in honor of Saint Patrick every year on St. Patrick’s Day. These celebrations are among the biggest in Ireland every year.
