Happy St. Patrick's Day, everyone! We could all use a bit o' Irish luck these days. Here are some fun facts about everyone's favourite green holiday:
- St. Patrick's Day is an official holiday in Ireland! Banks, schools and businesses all shut down so they can celebrate this fun holiday.
- "Though we've come to associate kelly green with the Irish and the holiday, the 5th-century saint's official color was "Saint Patrick's blue," a light shade of sky blue. The color green only became associated with the big day after it was linked to the Irish independence movement in the late 18th century" (Mental Floss).
- "Guinness sales soar on St. Patrick's Day. Recent figures show that 5.5 million pints of the black stuff are downed around the world every day. On St. Patrick's Day that figure is doubled" (Irish Central).
- "According to Irish legend, Saint Patrick used the shamrock as a metaphor for the Holy Trinity when he was first introducing Christianity to Ireland" (World Strides).
- "Corned beef and cabbage, which has become a St. Patrick's Day staple for Irish Americans, doesn't have anything to do with the grain corn. Instead, it's a nod to the large grains of salt that were historically used to cure meats, which were also known as 'corns'" (Mental Floss).
- "In 1737, the Feast of Saint Patrick was first celebrated in the United States by Irish immigrants. By 1762, New York City held the first official parade and, over time, it’s become one of the world’s largest St. Patrick’s Day parades" (Kids Konnect).
- "The first Irish person arrived in Canada in approximately 1661: Tadhg Cornelius O’Brennan came to Montréal in a wave of Irish Catholics escaping war, poor harvests and a severe penal system" (Montreal).
- "Not every city goes all-out in its celebratory efforts. From 1999 to 2007, the Irish village of Dripsey proudly touted that it hosted the Shortest Saint Patrick's Day Parade in the World. The route ran for 26 yards between two pubs" (Mental Floss).
- "With all of this recent talk about popes, it’s worth noting that St. Patrick never got canonized by one, making his saintly status somewhat questionable" (Bipgraphy).
- "Traditionally, every year, the Irish leader hands a crystal bowl full of shamrock to the US President. The shamrock, grown in Kerry, is immediately destroyed by the Secret Service after the exchange" (Irish Central).
Have a fun day celebrating Ireland!
(Photo via Canva)
Posted by Ken Richter on
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