St. Patrick’s Day is celebrated annually on March 17, the 17 celebration started in 1631, when the Catholic Church established a Feast Day honoring Saint Patrick, who is the patron saint of Ireland, and the national apostle. He had been the Patron Saint of Ireland who had died around the fifth century, which is 12-centuries before the modern version of the holiday was first observed.

The Irish have observed this religious holiday for over 1,000 years. On St. Patrick’s Day, which falls during the Christian season of Lent, Irish families traditionally attend church in the morning, and celebrate in the afternoon.

Saint Patrick
Patrick was born in Roman Britain to a to wealthy Romanized family during the fifth century. It is believed that he was raised near a village called Bannavem Taburniae, an unknown place in Roman Britain – possibly Banwen, Wales, which was also under Roman control at the time. However, its exact location cannot be identified.

The mystery began when Patrick wrote the following in the opening lines of his brief memoir the Confessio, — meaning confession:

“My name is Patrick. I am a sinner, a simple country person, and the least of all believers… My father was Calpornius. He was a deacon; his father was Potitus, a priest, who lived at Bannavem Taburniae. His home was near there, and that is where I was taken prisoner.

Patrick’s real name may have been Maewyn Succat. His father, Calpornius, was a Roman-British army officer, and a deacon. Despite his family involvement in the church, young Patrick was not a believer. His life was ordinary, and unexceptional, until the age of sixteen.

Patrick, or Patricius, or Padrig, was born, around 385-386 CE, in what is now Great Britain, and was largely controlled by the Roman Empire after Julius Caesar led the invasion of 55 CE. The Romans were there until the end of the fourth century — just after Patrick was born.
Because he was taken prisoner this way, it’s generally guessed that Patrick must have been born on the west coast of the “big island” of Great Britain. Dónal P. O’Mathúna has an analysis:

Patrick wrote that he grew up in Bannavem Taberniae, but efforts to locate this place precisely have so far failed. He tells us elsewhere that he was a Briton, and a Roman citizen. One place suggested for this has been south-west Scotland, which would be close to Ireland for raiders, and would also explain how Patrick knew Coroticus, who is named as king of Dumbarton in the fifth century in Welsh annals… Hanson acknowledges this evidence, but favors a location on the south west coast of Britain due to the higher density of Roman villas known to have existed in that area.

An alternative location is that of modern Boulogne-sur-mer, in north-east France, whose medieval name was Tarvenna or Tarabanna.

There’s still another possibility, as Thomas O’Loughlin points out in his book: Discovering Saint Patrick: Bannavem Taburniae might have been the name a local parish or even an estate, and not of a village.

Patrick was kidnapped, along with many others, by Irish raiders and sold into slavery to Gaelic Ireland, which present-day Northern Ireland. According to his autobiographical Confessio, which survives, the next six-years were spent imprisoned in the north of the island where he was put to work herding sheep and pigs on Slemish Mountain – historically called Slieve Mish, in County Antrim. While he was a shepherd, Patrick spent much of his time praying. During this period of captivity, he became increasingly religious, considered his kidnapping and imprisonment a punishment for his lack of faith, and spent a great deal of time in prayer.

Patrick was a slave for six long years, during which time he lived and worked an isolated existence as a shepherd. He finally managed to escape his captors, and according to his writings, a voice spoke to him in a dream, telling him it was time to leave Ireland. According to his writings, he believed the voice to be God’s.

Patrick walked nearly 200-miles from County Mayo, where he was held, to the Irish coast. Then he stowed away on a boat bound for Britain. Surviving a harrowing journey back to Britain, he was eventually reunited with his family. There he experienced a second revelation—an angel in a dream telling him to return to Ireland as a missionary. Shortly after, Patrick traveled to Gaul, were he studied religious instruction under Germanus, bishop of Auxerre. His course of study lasted for more than fifteen years, and culminated with his ordination as a priest.

He eventually returned to Ireland to join other early missionaries, possibly settling in Armagh, and intent on converting the native Pagans to Christianity. Seventh century biographers claim that he converted all of Ireland to Christianity.

After 12-years, he returned to Irish shores as a bishop, and sent with the Pope’s blessing.

Patrick landed at Strangford Loch, County Down, and St Patrick met with King Lóegaire to ask permission to preach Christianity. Even though Patrick is credited with having brought Christianity to Ireland, he was not the first to have done so. An earlier mission had brought Palladius preach to the Irish.

Palladius was the first Bishop of Ireland, and the first recorded mission. He arrived in Ireland in 431 CE arriving at Hy-Garchon, now known as Wicklow, where he set up churches, around the territory of Laigin – Leinster, one of the four provinces of Ireland, situated in the southeast, and east of Ireland.

Patrick is credited with bringing many to the Christian faith. He baptized thousands and also ordained priests. In many cases, people were converted despite opposition from family members or the community. Tradition names him as the first Bishop of Armagh.

It appears that Patrick was very successful at winning converts. Familiar with the Irish language and culture, he adapted traditional ritual into his lessons of Christianity, rather than attempting to eradicate native beliefs. He used bonfires to celebrate Easter since the Irish were used to honoring their gods with fire, and he also superimposed a sun, a powerful native symbol, onto the Christian cross to create what is now called a Celtic Cross.

The history of St Patrick is filled with periods of imprisonment, when his teachings upset local chieftains, the Celtic Druids, but he always escaped, or gained freedom by presenting his captors with gifts.

Upsetting local Celtic Druids, Patrick was imprisoned on several occasions, but he managed to escape each time. He traveled extensively throughout Ireland, establishing monasteries across the country, setting up the schools and churches that would aid him in his conversion of the Irish to Christianity.

Patrick’s mission in Ireland lasted approximately thirty years, after which time he retired to County Down. It is said that he died on March 17th in 461 CE, and since then, the date has been commemorated as St. Patrick’s Day.

For twenty years he traveled throughout the island, baptizing people, and establishing monasteries, and founded schools, and churches. However, the patron saint and national apostle of Ireland was never canonized as a saint by the Catholic Church. This lack of official sainthood is because there was no formal canonization process around 400 CE.

There is a legend that St. Patrick explained the Christian concept of ‘God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit’ all as one using the three leaves of a native Irish shamrock to illustrate the Holy Trinity.

A rich tradition of oral legend and myth surrounds St. Patrick, most of which has undoubtedly been exaggerated over the centuries. Spinning exciting tales was a means to remember history, and has always been a part of Irish culture.

Some of these legends recall how Patrick raised people from the dead, others tell that he drove all the snakes from Ireland. This would indeed have been a miracle, since snakes have never been present on the island of Ireland. It is possible, however, that the snakes were an analogy to the native Pagans.

Another Irish tale that may also have an element of truth tells how Patrick used the three-leafed shamrock to explain the Trinity. He apparently used it to show how the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit could all exist as separate elements of the same entity. His followers adopted the custom of wearing the shamrock on his feast day, and shamrock green remains the essential color for today’s festivities and celebrations.

By the time he died, around March 17, 461, or 493 CE, he left behind an organized church, the See of Armagh, and an island of Christians. He was buried either in Downpatrick, Co Down, or in Armagh.

Centuries following Patrick’s death, which is believed to have been on March 17, 461 CE, the mythology surrounding his life became ingrained in Irish culture.

Shamrocks or Clovers
Clover can refer to any of the approximately 300 species within the Trifolium family. Trefoil plants are those that have a three-leafed structure. Some of the most common clover species include strawberry clover, white clover, red clover, Swedish clover, Alsatian clover, and black clover. Clovers can have a fourth leaf, but only one out of 10,000 clovers have four leaves, and their colors can be purple, green, or white.

Since a normal clover only has three leaflets, a clover with four leaflets is technically considered a mutated clover. This mutation is quite rare, and the priests of the ancient Celts – the Druids, claimed that a four-leafed clover was a good luck charm against evil spirits. These days, most have forgotten about the ‘evil spirits’ part and just remember the part about good luck. It is believed that the four leaflets on a four-leaf-clover represent faith, hope, love, and luck.

The word Shamrock comes from the Gaelic word seamróg, which literally means ‘little clover.’ Shamrocks always have three leaves, are usually green, and grow in clumps.

The shamrock carries religious ties, and is a symbol for Ireland and St. Patrick’s Day, and this symbol specifically has three leaves, and not four. This particular point has to do with the lore around Saint Patrick, who was a Christian missionary, and the story is that he used the shamrock in his mission to demonstrate the principles of the Holy Trinity – three leaflets united by a common stalk.

The shamrock has been used as a symbol of the Emerald Isle since the late 17th to early 18th century.

Leprechauns and St. Patrick’s Day
Leprechauns were initially written about in 19th-century Irish fables. They were described as short men who were exceptional shoemakers. After making their money, they hid their coins in pots of gold at the end of rainbows, and they weren’t originally described as wearing green, but the color red.

Leprechauns weren’t associated with St. Patrick’s Day until 1959, when the film Darby O’Gill and the Little People, was released. It was a story about an old Irish man and his Leprechaun friends. The movie was released when St. Patrick’s Day parades were becoming more common, and this is how Leprechauns became popular in St. Patrick’s Day festivities.

St. Patrick’s Day Celebrations
On March 17, around the 9th or 10th century, Ireland began observing the Roman Catholic feast of St. Patrick.

A history professor at the University of South Florida, J. Michael Francis discovered the city of St. Augustine’s role in St. Patrick’s Day festivities. Francis is an expert on Spain’s colonies in the Americas, and while researching archives in Spain, he came across a reference to San Patricio.

The first St. Patrick’s Day parade took place not in Ireland, but in America. Records show that St. Patrick’s Day festivities were held on March 17, 1601 in St. Augustine, Florida, while still a Spanish colony.

The St. Patrick’s Day parade and celebration were both organized by the Spanish Colony’s Irish priest Ricardo Artur. Padre Ricardo Artur, was actually born Richard Arthur in Ireland, and had been an Irish solider before becoming a priest. No parades are recorded after Padre Artur’s death.

More than a century later, homesick Irish soldiers serving in the English military marched in New York City on March 17, 1772 to honor the Irish patron saint. Enthusiasm for the St. Patrick’s Day parades in New York City, Boston, and other early American cities only grew and continued.

Over the next 35-years, Irish patriotism among American immigrants flourished, prompting the rise of Irish Aid societies, like the Friendly Sons of Saint Patrick, and the Hibernian Society. Each group held annual parades featuring bagpipes and drums.

In 1848, several New York Irish Aid societies decided to unite their parades to form one official New York City, St. Patrick’s Day Parade. Today, that parade is the world‘s oldest parade, and the largest in the United States, with over 150,000 participants. Each year, nearly 3 million people line the 1.5-mile parade route to watch the procession that takes over 5-hours. Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, and Savannah also celebrate with parades of between 10,000 and 20,000 participants each.

The First St. Patrick’s Day Celebration
It wasn’t until 1631, that the Church established a feast honoring the Patron Saint of Ireland. Because St. Patrick’s Day falls during Lent, which is the period preceding Easter that in the Christian Church is devoted to fasting, abstinence, and penitence in commemoration of Christ’s fasting in the wilderness, it became a day for Christians to take a break from the abstinence practiced during the weeks leading up to Easter. In the Western Church, it runs from Ash Wednesday to Holy Saturday, which includes the forty days.

By the 1700s, the holiday began to become more festive than its founders had intended.

In the United States, Irish immigrants were mostly responsible for changing St. Patrick’s Day from a religious observation to a secular one.

In 1737, Boston’s massive Irish population held their first parade, and New York City followed 25-years later. Today, along with Chicago, which is famed for dyeing its river green since 1962, these cities still celebrate the biggest celebrations dedicated to St. Patrick.

St. Patrick’s Day Irish-American roots also explain why some traditional foods, like corned beef and cabbage, are not actually Irish. Corned beef and cabbage did not originate from Ireland, but on American soil in the late 19th century, and the meal isn’t actually Irish at all. Instead of corned beef and cabbage, the traditional St. Patrick’s Day meal eaten in Ireland is lamb or bacon.

The tradition of eating corned beef and cabbage to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day likely grew out of the fact that those foods were less expensive for immigrants who came to America, and they substituted beef for pork, and cabbage for potatoes.

Ireland
In 1903, St. Patrick’s Day became a public holiday in Ireland, expanding the religious celebration to the secular realm. The parades followed, starting in Waterford that same year. In Dublin, where the first St. Paddy’s Day parade was held in 1931, the party has grown to a four-day festival.

Because the day fell right in the middle of Lent, people began using it as a reason to celebrate, and take a break from the restraints and abstinence of the period leading up to Easter. However, it didn’t actually become a public holiday in Ireland until 1904.

The Reason Green is worn on St. Patrick’s Day
It’s only since the Irish Rebellion of 1798, that the hue became associated with the holiday. Blue, which adorned the ancient Irish flag, was first identified with St. Patrick’s Day. However, the rebels wore green to differentiate themselves from the British, who clothed themselves in red, and the color came to denote Ireland, and the Irish.

The Emerald Isle wasn’t always associated with the color green. Ireland was actually once aligned with the color blue. When England’s Henry the VIII claimed himself king of Ireland in the 1500s, his flag was blue, and Ireland was also associated with the color. The color green was later used in the flag in the Great Irish Rebellion of 1641, when the Irish fought against the English.

Throughout the years, green became a national color of pride for Ireland. This is the reason wearing green clothes became common in the U.S. at St. Patrick’s Day parades and celebrations, in the 1800s. It was a symbol Irish-Americans used to honor their heritage, and St. Patrick’s Day parades were a means for early Irish immigrants to show their collective pride.

Consumer Spending on St Patrick’s Day
According to Statista – the average amount consumers plan to spend on St. Patrick’s Day in the United States in 2023; consumers intend to spend an average of about 44 U.S. dollars per person to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day.

The United States records more than $5 billion during St. Patrick’s Day. The holiday steers money toward restaurants, bars, costume stores, hotels, retail stores, and other businesses.