St. Patrick’s Day

He was not actually from Ireland. St. Patrick arrived in the world in Roman Britain in the late fourth century. Irish raiders captured him as a teenager and brought him to Ireland as a prisoner.

The original color was completely different. Before the world decided everything needed an emerald hue, people originally associated St. Patrick with a specific shade of light blue.

There were never any snakes. Legend says he chased all the snakes out of Ireland, but science tells us the icy ocean waters kept snakes from ever reaching the island in the first place.

The first parade happened in America. Surprisingly, the very first St. Patrick’s Day parade took place in Florida in 1601, way before the massive celebrations in Boston or New York even started.

It used to be a dry holiday. For most of the twentieth century, Ireland treated St. Patrick’s Day strictly as a religious observance, meaning the law forced all pubs to close down for the day.

A massive river gets an emerald makeover. Every year, the city of Chicago dumps forty pounds of environmentally friendly dye into the Chicago River to turn the water a vibrant, shimmering green.

The shamrock served as a teaching tool. St. Patrick allegedly used the three leaves of the native Irish clover to explain the concept of the Holy Trinity to the people he wanted to convert.

American immigrants invented corned beef and cabbage. If you visit Dublin on the holiday, you probably will not find this classic meal on the menu, because Irish immigrants created the dish after moving to New York City.

Your pint of Guinness sits in good company. Thirsty revelers consume an estimated thirteen million pints of the famous Irish stout around the world on this single holiday, which more than doubles the usual daily amount.

A king accidentally inspired the green dye. King George III created a new order of chivalry for Ireland and used blue as the official color, which prompted the rebellious Irish people to adopt green as their symbol of defiance.

Even astronauts celebrate the holiday. The International Space Station has hosted several St. Patrick’s Day celebrations, with astronauts playing traditional Irish flutes and wearing green while floating in zero gravity.

The holiday honors the day he died. We celebrate on March 17th because historians accept that date as the day he passed away in the year 461, rather than his birthday.

Pinching is a quirky American superstition. The tradition of pinching someone who forgot to wear green started in America. It stems from a myth that wearing green makes you totally invisible to pesky, pinching leprechauns.

The real St. Patrick had a totally different name. His parents actually named him Maewyn Succat, and he only changed his name to Patricius after becoming a priest later in life.

New York City throws the biggest party. While Dublin definitely knows how to celebrate, the massive parade in Manhattan stands as the largest in the world, drawing over two million spectators to Fifth Avenue every single year.