Since today is St. Patrick’s Day I wanted to inform myself about that Irish bank holiday. I don’t know if it’s celebrated in your country or if you have no idea what that St. Patrick’s Day is about. If the later one applies to you then you might like that blog post. There are quite a few traditions that are associated with St. Patrick’s Day. It was originally a typical Irish thing but it’s celebrated here in Austria as well. It’s not that a big thing here but we are well into green beer and shamrocks. Following I got the most typical traditions and customs of St. Patrick’s Day I thought might be interesting to share and some facts you will be astonished about.
Wearing green
Wearing green on St. Patrick’s Day is as natural as breathing, it became a common thing.
Even the ones who have no connection to Ireland are wearing green clothes to celebrate the Irish culture. Now I maybe ruin your outfit plans but St. Patrick’s colour wasn’t green. Wait, what?? What was the original colour then? It was blue! St. Patrick was wearing blue clothes on several painted pictures and the country was represented on a blue flag once. Further down the line green became the Irish colour due to the green countryside (caused by the high amount of rainfall). Whilst talking about St. Patrick there is another fact you won’t believe. The real St. Patrick wasn't Irish, he was Scottish or Welsh (nobody knows exactly) and moreover his real name wasn’t Patrick. Ok, wow...now what is St. Patrick’s Day then about? The most popular things associated with that day are wrong? Green wasn’t the bank holidays colour, it originally wasn’t Irish AND his name wasn’t Patrick. There is said that he just adopted the name Patrick when he became a priest.
Holy day of obligation
As St. Patrick’s Day is a holy day of obligation, most Christians in Ireland attend church. Families wear their best clothes and add shamrocks on their breast to round up the perfect St. Patrick’s Day outfit. But again I might ruin your St. Patrick’s Day routine: the shamrock isn’t the symbol of Ireland. It’s just a random Irish symbol, but it is not the symbol of Ireland.
After the mass families return home and sit down to a typical roast dinner. Alcohol wasn’t a thing initially. It was consumed very rarely. But...aside from the colour green and shamrocks, the most associated thing with St. Patrick's Day is obviously drinking. It was occasionally a dry holiday in Ireland until 1970. Pubs weren’t allowed to open there doors until then. That meant no beer, not even the green one. The law was overturned in 1970, when St. Patrick's was reclassified as a national holiday - allowing the pubs to open and therefore for drinking.
Drinking green beer
Even in Austria you will find green beer on St. Patrick’s Day. So you would assume that you get that for sure in Ireland. But again... you hardly find it. That’s actually an American thing. Only a few parts of Ireland, like Dublin, may have several pubs that serve green beer but for the majority it’s not something the Irish generally do. And there’s another fact: there are more Irish in the USA than in Ireland itself. St. Patrick’s Day originally began in America.
The Irish Americans who wanted to celebrate their Irish heritage started St. Patrick’s Day with banquets at elite clubs in big cities. I read that the first St. Patrick’s Day parade took place in New York City but it wasn't a common event for people to attend until the mid-19th century.
A day of parades & festivals
Irish families often sit together in front of the television and watch the street parades around the world. The first ever parade took place during 1766. Today occur so much more parades, all over the world inviting millions of people to celebrate being Irish for a day.
And now the last fact of this post: the Irish government decided in 1995 to hold parades in Dublin to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, with the intention to boost Ireland’s tourism. I would say with success, because now the St. Patrick’s festival which takes place over 5 days is now known to people around the world. This festival includes different events like art shows, plays, concerts, fun fairs and the main parade.
I would love to know if you celebrate St. Patrick’s Day in your country. Make sure to let me know.
If you do: Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
If you don’t: Happy Saturday!
Love,
Ella x