Interesting Facts about St. Patrick’s Day

St. Patrick’s Day 2025 is celebrated in today’s Google Doodle! Every year, Google Doodle honors Saint Patrick’s Day! Millions of people around the world celebrate the patron saint of Ireland on this day every year with parades, parties, celebrations, and all-green costumes.

Originally celebrated as a religious holiday, St. Patrick’s Day has now spread throughout the world and become a major cultural event, especially in countries with sizable Irish communities. Cities like Dublin, New York, London, and Montreal host grand celebrations. A spirited celebration, a touch of green, or a common Irish spirit may be found wherever you travel in the world.

20 Interesting Facts about Saint Patrick’s Day

1. March 17th is St. Patrick’s Day, an international celebration of Irish culture that includes customs like wearing green, parades, and the shamrock as a symbol. It honors the death of St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland.
2. Despite being linked with wearing green these days, St. Patrick’s Day has a long history that goes back more than 1,500 years. The earliest known celebration took place on March 17, 1631, the anniversary of St. Patrick’s death in the fifth century.
3. On March 17, the traditional death date of Saint Patrick (c. 385–c. 461), the most important patron saint of Ireland, Saint Patrick’s Day, also known as the Feast of Saint Patrick (Irish: Lá Fhéile Pádraig, lit. “the Day of the Festival of Patrick”), is celebrated as a religious and cultural festival.
4. The Catholic Church, the Anglican Communion (particularly the Church of Ireland), the Eastern Orthodox Church, and the Lutheran Church all celebrate Saint Patrick’s Day, which was declared a Christian feast day in the early 17th century.
5. In addition to celebrating Saint Patrick and the introduction of Christianity to Ireland, the day also honors the Irish people’s rich cultural legacy.
6. Common celebrations include céilithe, public parades and festivals, and wearing shamrocks or green clothing. Christians who follow liturgical denominations also attend church. Historically, the Lenten restrictions on fasting and alcohol consumption were lifted for the day, adding to the holiday’s festive atmosphere.
7. The British Overseas Territory of Montserrat, the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador (for provincial government employees), the Republic of Ireland, and Northern Ireland all observe Saint Patrick’s Day as a public holiday.
8. It is also frequently celebrated in countries with a strong Irish diaspora, including Great Britain, Canada, the United States, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa. More nations commemorate Saint Patrick’s Day than any other national festival.
9. Read more: St Patrick’s Day 2020: Know everything about Feast Day of Saint Patrick
10. Saint Patrick’s Day customs that evolved among the Irish diaspora, particularly in North America, have had a significant impact on modern celebrations. In the diaspora, Saint Patrick’s Day was frequently celebrated more widely than in Ireland until the late 20th century.
11. In general, celebrations include wearing shamrocks or green outfits, Irish traditional music sessions (céilithe), and public parades and festivals. Formal gatherings like dances and banquets are also held, albeit they were more prevalent in the past.
12. The tradition of a St. Patrick’s Day parade originated in America and predates the United States’ establishment, although people in Ireland have been celebrating St. Patrick’s Day since the 1600s.
13. In what is now St. Augustine, Florida, a Spanish colony hosted a St. Patrick’s Day procession on March 17, 1601, according to records. Ricardo Artur, an Irish vicar in the Spanish Colony, organized the parade and a St. Patrick’s Day celebration a year earlier. Over a century later, Irish soldiers who were homesick while serving in the English military marched in Boston in 1737 and in New York City on March 17.
14. It was not until the 20th century that Saint Patrick’s Day parades made their way to Ireland, having started in North America in the 18th century. Marching bands, the military, fire brigades, cultural organizations, nonprofits, volunteer associations, youth organizations, fraternities, and so forth are typically among the participants. But many of the parades have evolved into something more like carnivals over time. In Ireland, where Seachtain na Gaeilge (or “Irish language week”) runs from March 1 to St. Patrick’s Day on March 17, more effort is made to speak the Irish language.
15. Tourism Ireland’s “Global Greening Initiative” or “Going Green for St Patrick’s Day” has been celebrating Saint Patrick’s Day by lighting up iconic locations in green since 2010.
16. Since then, more than 300 landmarks in 50 nations have gone green for Saint Patrick’s Day, with the Sydney Opera House and Auckland’s Sky Tower being the first to do so.
17. Over the years, “wetting the shamrock” or “drowning the shamrock” was an annual St Patrick’s Day tradition. It’s common to wear shamrocks, green apparel, or green accessories on Saint Patrick’s Day.
18. Although the color green has come to be linked with St. Patrick’s Day, the event was initially connected with the color blue. The green of the Irish flag and the shamrock, or clover, are believed to have contributed to the change to green. Ireland is known as “The Emerald Isle.” As early as the 17th century, people wore shamrocks and green ribbons.
19. Wearing the ‘St Patrick’s Day Cross’ was also a common ritual in Ireland until the early twentieth century. These were a Celtic Christian cross made of paper “covered with silk or ribbon of different colours, and a bunch or rosette of green silk in the centre”.
20. Corned beef and cabbage, which became a national St. Patrick’s Day staple, was an example of American innovation. While ham and cabbage were popular in Ireland, corned beef was a less expensive option for impoverished immigrants. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Irish Americans in Lower Manhattan’s slums bought leftover corned beef from ships that were returning from China’s tea trade. To extract some of the brine, the Irish would boil the beef three times, finishing with cabbage.
21. It is a widely observed holiday, although only in Ireland, Northern Ireland, Newfoundland, Labrador, and Montserrat is it recognized as such. Many businesses, government offices, and schools close on the day in these locations as residents participate in parades, religious services, and community events. Grand festivals, especially in Ireland, attract tourists from all over the world who come to take in the lively displays of Irish culture, traditional music, and dancing.