St. Patrick’s Day 2023: Date, History, Facts about St. Patrick’s

St. Patrick’s Day greetings! The 17th of March is Saint Patrick’s Day, unless you’ve been residing under the Blarney Stone. Also known as St. Patrick’s Day, it is the one day of the year when everyone and anyone can call themselves Irish, if not by blood, then in spirit. If you have been residing beneath the Blarney Stone, you are fortunate. We’re sure you have some insight into how a religious holiday honoring the famed Irish patron saint who introduced Christianity to Ireland became a day celebrated almost globally, typically with copious quantities of green beer and liquor shots.

St. Patrick’s Day is celebrated in more countries than any other single-day national festival, primarily due to American enthusiasm for what many consider a holiday even though it is not a federally recognized holiday.

Parades are the beating core of St. Patrick’s Day celebrations in the United States. This is not surprising, as the first St. Patrick’s Day parade took place in 1601 in what is now St. Augustine, Florida, and not in Ireland. And the first genuine St. Patrick’s Day parade took place in America in 1737, although it was little more than a few Irish Protestants walking down the middle of a street in Boston to honor the patron saint of their homeland. Irish troops operating in British colonies organized the inaugural St. Patrick’s Day parade in New York City in 1762, fourteen years prior to the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Today, the largest St. Patrick’s Day celebration in the world is the annual parade in New York City, where over two million spectators claim to be Irish, if only for the day.

No Selfies Day 2023: Date, History, Observance

The background of St. Patrick’s Day

In 1631, the Catholic Church designated March 17 as a feast day honoring Saint Patrick, Ireland’s most well-known and adored patron saint. The 17th of March always fell during the Christian sacred season of Lent, when alcohol consumption was forbidden by the Church, with rare exceptions. On Saint Patrick’s feast day, however, the prohibition on alcohol was lifted, presumably because it was a feast day and feasting typically involved alcohol.

Saint Patrick’s Day remained a traditionally religious holiday in Ireland. Eventually, Irish laws curtailed the consumption of alcohol during the feast on March 17 by requiring that all taverns remain closed on that day. This was Irish law until the 1970s, when it was repealed. The Church of Ireland, the Catholic Church, the Anglican Communion, the Eastern Orthodox Church, and the Lutheran Church continue to observe this day as a feast day. However, in the mid-1990s, when the Irish government became aware of a growing fascination with St. Patrick’s Day among American tourists, they initiated a national campaign to convert this fascination into tourist dollars.

In the 1800s, more than one million Irish men, women, and children immigrated to the United States through Ellis Island. In America, they encountered oppressive discrimination, which led to the majority of them being unemployed and living in abject poverty in New York City tenements. As their population grew, the Irish discovered the power of unity and united to commemorate their beloved patron saint on March 17 with a parade. St. Patrick’s Day parades and festivals followed Irish immigrants as they moved across the American heartland and into the deep south in search of inexpensive farmland and employment.

Regarding our preoccupation with excessive imbibing on St. Patrick’s Day: This appears to be a contemporary American phenomenon with no deep roots in Irish custom. However, the Irish do not murmur. When the Irish first arrived in the United States, they were spurned and despised. On St. Patrick’s Day, everyone aspires to be Irish. How amazing is that? The more Irish there are on St. Patrick’s Day, the happier it is.

“Erin go Bragh!”

5 FACTS TO KNOW ON ST. PATRICK’S DAY

Son of a Christian church deacon and an affluent family, Maewyn Succat was born around 385 A.D. in Britain, which was then ruled by the Roman Empire.

The wealthy youth was abducted from Britain at the age of 16 by a band of pirates who enslaved him for six years as a shepherd in Gaelic Ireland, during which he converted to Christianity.

Although he is known as Saint Patrick and is the most revered of all patron saints of Ireland, the Catholic Church has never formally canonized him as a saint.

This is an urban legend, as there have never been any snakes on the island nation of Ireland.

According to legend, St. Patrick used a green plant with three leaves, commonly known as a shamrock, to teach the Christian concept of the Holy Trinity; only a three-leaf clover can be considered a shamrock.

ST. PATRICK’S DAY DATES

Year	Date	Day
2023	March 17	Friday
2024	March 17	Sunday
2025	March 17	Monday
2026	March 17	Tuesday
2027	March 17	Wednesday