In 1991, the U.S. Congress designated March as an Irish-American heritage month because one of the most popular Irish holidays, St. Patrick’s Day, is celebrated on March 17 every year. The holiday commemorates the death of St. Patrick, the saint patron of Ireland who introduced Christianity to the country in the fifth century. St. Patrick’s Day had been celebrated by Irish people all over the world for more than 1000 years and became very popular in the USA as well. In fact, there are about 40 million people of Irish ancestry living in the USA nowadays, which is almost 8 times the size of the population of the Republic of Ireland of about 4.5 million people.
However, while the holiday was historically religious in character with people attending the church and honoring the memory of St. Patrick, over time it became a widespread celebration of Irish culture and its achievements. There are many traditions associated with the holiday but, undoubtedly, one of the most popular traditions is St. Patrick’s parade held on March 17. In the USA, the biggest parades are held not only in cities with large Irish populations such as New York, Boston, and Chicago, but in other cities as well, for example, in Savannah, Georgia. It has been calculated that about 100 parades are held across the USA each year! In fact, the very first St. Patrick’s parade was held not in Ireland but in New York City in 1762, when British soldiers of Irish descent marched in the streets of the city to commemorate national apostle St. Patrick and reconnect with their Irish compatriots. Today, New York’s St. Patrick’s Parade is one of the largest in the world and includes about 150 thousand participants and draws about 3 million spectators. Usually, the parades present excellent occasion to listen to traditional Irish bagpipe and drum music, enjoy tasty Irish food of corned beef and cabbage, watch Irish people dressed in national clothes, and celebrate all things Irish!
In addition, some other traditions emerged over time in connection with St. Patrick’s Day. For example, it became a curious custom to dye Chicago River in Chicago green on this holiday! The tradition started in 1962 when green food coloring was used to test the purity of river water. Nowadays, about 40 pounds of green food coloring is poured in Chicago River on March 17, which makes the water turn green for several hours. In Dublin, Ireland, St. Patrick’s Day was initially a religious holiday with people attending church services and spending time with their families. However, in 1995 the Irish government made a decision to designate St. Patrick’s Day a national holiday to celebrate Irish culture and to attract tourists from all over world. Thus, the holiday became a several-day long celebration with many concerts, festivals, fireworks, and parades held all over the city and it attracts up to a million visitors each year. Moreover, St. Patrick’s Day is celebrated in other countries as well such as Canada, Australia, Japan, Russia, and Singapore! Irish culture, which survived many difficulties, famines, and oppression for many hundred years and produced such famous people as James Joyce, Eugene O’Neill, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Walt Disney, Bing Crosby, and John F. Kennedy just to name the few, certainly deserves the recognition!
Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
