In the U.S., we celebrate St. Patrick’s Day with the color green, corned beef, and buckets and buckets of…potatoes. But is the Irish celebration of St. Patrick’s Day anything like the American holiday we know and love? We did a little research, and found a few facts about good old St. Patty’s that might surprise you.
5 strange facts about St. Patty’s
1. Saint Patrick wasn’t actually Irish
Who would have guessed the patron saint of Ireland wasn’t actually Irish? Born to aristocratic parents in Britain in about 385 AD, Saint Patrick was kidnapped by pirates and taken to Ireland, where he was enslaved for 17 years. He eventually found his way home and then returned to Ireland (voluntarily, this time) to serve as a Catholic missionary amongst the pagan people of Ireland. Also, St. Patrick’s color was blue. Go figure.
2. Neither is corned beef
Most citizens of Ireland don’t actually eat corned beef on St. Patrick’s Day…or ever. Unheard of in Ireland, where pork is usually the preferred meat, corned beef was introduced into the Irish American diet in the 18th century. Living alongside Eastern European immigrants in the United States, the Irish immigrants first tasted corned beef in the Jewish delis of New York City. Combined with the true Irish staples of cabbage and potatoes, it wasn’t long before the dish swept the nation as an official Irish American tradition.
Explorica Group Leaders inside St. Patrick’s Cathedral
3. St. Patrick’s Day (as we know it) was really invented in the United States
Now, no one pulled this holiday out of a hat—the original Irish have been celebrating Saint Patrick’s feast day as a religious holiday since about the 9th century A.D. But it was really just a saint’s day just like any other until the Americans took over. U.S. cities with large Irish immigrant populations, such as Boston, New York, Savannah, Charleston and Philadelphia started celebrating their Irish heritage on the Catholic feast day, eventually leading to the first St. Patrick’s Day parade in New York City in 1762.
4. There were never snakes in Ireland…probably
One of the legends surrounding Saint Patrick involves expelling all the snakes from the Emerald Isle. But let’s be serious—Ireland is way too cold for serpents. Unless we’re heading toward an ice age (probable) or snakes have evolved to only survive in warmer climates (questionable), this legend is “totally bogus, dude.” It’s far more likely that the snakes of the story were a metaphor for evil, paganism or “He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named.”
The Papal Cross in Dublin, Ireland.
5. March 17 is Lent-exempt
For those of you practicing Catholic, Eastern Orthodox or Episcopalian readers out there, good news: today you get to eat whatever you want. (As for the rest of you, you can continue to eat whatever you want.) As a feast day, the Feast of St. Patrick was traditionally an observed respite from Lenten fasting, so Irish parishioners could consume all the meat, sweets and yes, even beer as much as they want. Well, at least as much as they could handle. According to some parishioners, Sundays are also exemptions from Lent. But you should probably check with your priest about all this just to be sure.
Explorica Group Leaders at Malahide Castle.
No matter how close the holiday lies to its original Irish roots, the American tradition has taken on a life of its own, to the extent that the Irish American traditions of raucous parades, corned beef, and the color green have been adopted during the Dublin St. Patrick’s celebrations.
So if you’re celebrating St. Patrick’s Day, get ready to eat, drink and be Irish! Or, more accurately, be Irish American.