Though St. Patrick is the patron saint of Ireland, people all over the globe celebrate his feast day, March 17, every year. Generally, in the United States, this celebration follows a standard order: don something green, go to a parade, eat corned beef and cabbage, and drink a Guinness (or two…or three). We all have a general idea of why we celebrate the day, regardless of Irish heritage. The full story, however, is often lost to time. Here are nine facts about St. Patrick’s Day that you might not have known.
1. St. Patrick was not Irish
St. Patrick was born in the 4th century CE, roughly around 390, and lived until about the age of 75, according to legend. His story is largely based on folklore and legend, but it is known that he was born and raised somewhere in Britain, not Ireland.
The story goes that Patrick was born Maewyn Succat in England, Scotland, or Wales. The future saint’s parents were likely a part of the Roman aristocracy, and it is unknown whether his family was natively Celtic. Legend states that Patrick’s father was a Christian deacon and that at age 16, Patrick was captured by Irish marauders and sold into enslavement in Northern Ireland.
Supposedly, the future saint fled Ireland after six years of shepherding on behalf of an Irish priest who bought him from his attackers. Twelve years later, Patrick returned to the land of his captivity after a stint in religious training. Depending on the storyteller, his time in monasteries either occurred back in Britain or in France.
Regardless of where he trained, it is certain that Patrick returned to Ireland as a Christian missionary sometime around 430 CE. After his death in 462 CE, he was declared the patron saint of Ireland, though he was never actually officially canonized by the Catholic Church.
2. St. Patrick’s Day is not the Saint’s Birthday
In reality, it is the opposite. St. Patrick’s Day celebrates the saint’s feast on the supposed day of his death in 462 CE. He was buried outside the cathedral in Downpatrick, County Down, Northern Ireland.
Though St. Patrick was never officially canonized, he is accepted as a saint by the Catholic, Anglican, Eastern Orthodox, and Lutheran churches. His feast day was officially added to the liturgical calendar of the Catholic Church in the 1600s due to the efforts of Irish Franciscan scholar Luke Wadding.
Though the holiday is traditionally celebrated on March 17th, the Catholic Church does not officially celebrate saints’ feast days during other holidays that take precedence, such as Holy Week. This means that occasionally, St. Patrick’s Day is not technically celebrated on the saint’s death day, such as in 1940, when it was instead celebrated on April 3rd.
3. St. Patrick’s Day was a Dry Holiday
St. Patrick’s Day in modern times is associated with a certain level of debauchery. In the United States, a popular tradition is to have drinks with green food dye added. Another famous Irish libation, Guinness, experiences massive sales increases on St. Patrick’s Day, selling around 13 million pints in one day, a whopping 819% increase in sales.
However, in accordance with March 17th being a religious holiday for most of its history, pubs and any other retailers of alcohol were closed on the patron saint’s feast day in Ireland. The one exception to this was the beer distributors who worked at the National Dog Show, held every year on St. Patrick’s Day. This was lifted in the 1970s when it became a bank holiday, and pubs were opened for business.
4. St. Patrick Never Banished Snakes from Ireland
One of the most famous legends involving St. Patrick is that of his chasing all serpentine creatures out of the Emerald Isle and into the sea. The story goes that St. Patrick stood atop a hill and commanded the exile of all snakes from Ireland, which is why there are no snakes there today.
However, this story is very likely apocryphal. It is considered a metaphor for St. Patrick’s mission to Ireland. He was to banish the supposedly evil pagan beliefs from Ireland in favor of Christianity, and with the snake being a Christian symbol of evil, the story stuck. No fossil records indicate any slithering reptilians in Ireland, at least since the last glacial period. Before that, due to the likelihood that the island was covered in ice, it is believed snakes could never have lived there.
5. The Shamrock was a Symbol of Ireland before St. Patrick
Many know the Shamrock, or three-leaf clover, as a symbol of Ireland and its rolling, clover-filled hills. The ancient Celts called the clovers “seamroy” and considered them sacred harbingers of Spring.
According to legend, when St. Patrick was a missionary in Ireland, he used the three-leaved plant as a teaching tool, connecting the leaves to the Holy Trinity. However, this myth has never been proven and is likely apocryphal, much like the saint’s banishment of snakes. Though the story is more than likely not true, throughout the years, the Shamrock has continued to be a symbol of the Trinity in Ireland.
The Shamrock is also a secular symbol for the Emerald Isle, as it was used to represent budding Irish nationalism from the 17th century onward. It is now synonymous with Ireland and Irish culture.
6. Corned Beef and Cabbage is American
Irish immigrants to America instituted the traditional meal of St. Patrick’s Day based upon necessity. In Ireland, the traditional meal of the holiday was ham and cabbage. However, ham was expensive for Irish immigrants to the United States.
After a devastating potato famine in Ireland, flocks of people emigrated out of the country to find a better life in the United States. However, upon arrival, the Irish immigrants were treated with disdain by the upper echelons of American society, as they were primarily unskilled workers.
Thus, when they wanted to celebrate the feast of their patron saint, Irish immigrants looked to cheaper alternatives, like corned beef. This tradition began with immigrants living in Manhattan in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, who purchased scraps of corned beef, boiling it three times with cabbage. It has remained a popular food on St. Patrick’s Day without any of the disdain it once garnered.
7. Green is not the Traditional Color of St. Patrick
Though it seems synonymous with the holiday in modern times, St. Patrick’s Day was not always associated with the color green. St. Patrick’s Blue, a light, sky-blue color, was actually the official color of the saint for several hundred years.
Kelly green, the color now most associated with Ireland, was first used in context with the lush island in the 11th century when Irish legend goes that the symbolic father of the Gaels and their languages (Irish, Scottish, Gaelic, and Manx) was Goídel Glas, who received a green mark when he was healed from a snake bite by Moses’ staff. His descendants settled in Ireland, a green island free of snakes.
The color was associated with St. Patrick from the 1680s when it began to be used as a symbol of Irish pride and the budding nationalist movement. It was brought to the United States by proud Irish immigrants, who, upon leaving their homeland, brought their sentiments of rebellion against British rule with them.
8. Leprechauns are based on Celtic Lore
Leprechauns are another classic symbol of St. Patrick’s Day. Grouchy, redheaded, and small in stature, the green-clad leprechaun is a legendary trickster who is said to guard a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow.
However, before they came to represent St. Patrick’s Day, leprechauns were prominent in Celtic folklore as members of the fairies. Fairies were quite common in Celtic stories and explained phenomena both good and evil. Fairies called Changelings could steal children and replace them with doppelgängers, Banshees could warn of imminent death in a family, and Pooka could help guide lost people and animals.
Traditionally, Leprechauns, called “lobaircin” in Irish, were the cobblers of the fairy world. If caught, they would have to grant three wishes in order to gain their freedom. Leprechauns became the most famous of the Celtic fairies and are thus closely associated with Ireland and St. Patrick’s Day today.
9. The First St. Patrick’s Day Parade was in the United States
Before coming to the United States, St. Patrick’s Day was obviously most often celebrated in Ireland from at least the 1600s on. However, records indicate that the first parade, an event often associated with the holiday, was celebrated in the then-Spanish colony of St. Augustine, Florida, in 1600 and was organized by the colony’s Irish vicar Ricardo Artur.
Over a century and a half later, the first official parade occurred in 1762 in New York City. Approximately 250,000 people march up 5th Avenue every year on March 17th. The parade is still one of the biggest in the world and had never been canceled until the COVID-19 pandemic struck in 2020. However, the city now celebrates once again, along with several other cities throughout the world.
In Ireland and beyond, St. Patrick’s Day is still a commemoration of the saint, as well as a jubilant celebration of Irish culture and heritage.
