The 15 Most Interesting St. Patrick’s Day Facts
As St. Patrick’s Day draws closer, we’ll soon be searching for that green Shamrock shirt, scanning Pinterest for (easy) Corned Beef recipes and picking up a little whiskey or Guinness to get ready for the celebration.
Sure we love to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, but where did these traditions come from and how are we celebrating them today? We’ve picked some of the most interesting St. Patrick’s Day facts and tidbits for you to share in your party conversations!
Here are 15 of our favorite facts and tidbits about St. Patrick’s Day:
1. St. Patrick’s Day is an Irish national holiday with banks, stores, and businesses closing for the day.
2. The first St. Patrick’s Day celebration in the United States was held in Boston (1737).
3. Shamrocks are the national flower/emblem of Ireland.
4. The color of St. Patrick’s Day was originally blue.
Wearing green has become a staple of St. Patrick’s Day, but the holiday was originally associated with the color blue. It’s thought that the shift to green happened because of Ireland’s nickname “The Emerald Isle,” the green in the Irish flag and the shamrock, or clover. Green ribbons and shamrocks were worn as early as the 17th century.
5. Beer is one of the most widely consumed beverages on St. Patrick’s Day.
6. Legend says that each leaf of the clover has a meaning: Hope, Faith, Love and Luck.
7. 1962 marked the first time Chicago dyed their river green for St Patrick’s Day.
8. Guiness is one of the most popular drinks on St. Patrick’s Day. Here are 34 recipes:
http://www.buzzfeed.com/rachelysanders/eat-cook-with-guinness-stout-beer-recipes-st-patricks-day
9. Shamrock shakes are also very popular (and tasty!)
10. There are 34.7 million U.S. residents with Irish ancestry. This number is more than seven times the population of Ireland itself.
11. The real St. Patrick wasn’t Irish. He was born in Britain around A.D. 390 to an aristocratic Christian family.
12. Your odds of finding a four-leaf clover are about 1 in 10,000.
13. The world’s shortest St. Patrick’s Day parade is held in an Irish village. It lasts only 100 yards, between the village’s two pubs.
14. To celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, Chicago dyes the river green for a few hours.
15. St. Patrick never got canonized by a pope, making his saintly status somewhat questionable.