Fun St. Patrick's Day Facts

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St. Patrick’s Day observes of the death of St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland.  A celebration of Irish culture with parades, special foods, music, dancing, drinking and a whole lot of green!

1) The first recorded celebration:  March 17, 1631, marks the anniversary of the death of St. Patrick 

St. Patrick was actually BRITISH! 

At age 16 he was kidnapped by Irish raiders and sold as a slave to a Celtic priest in Northern Ireland. He worked for six years as a shepherd, he escaped back to Britain. He eventually returned to Ireland as a Christian missionary and is credited with bringing Christianity to the island - Anglo Saxons. He is known only from two short works, the Confessio, a spiritual autobiography, and his Letter to Coroticus, a denunciation of British mistreatment of Irish Christians.

2) Celts considered the 3 leafed clover (shamrock) as a sacred plant that symbolized the arrival of spring. Tradition tells us that St. Patrick used the plant as a visual guide when explaining the Holy Trinity. By the 17th century, the shamrock had become a symbol of Irish nationalism.

3) Saint Patrick didn’t wear green! His color was “Saint Patrick’s blue.” The color green became associated with St. Patrick’s Day after it was linked to the Irish independence movement in the late 18th century. *

4) Though observances have been recorded as early as the 1600's, Irish immigrants felling homesick, began observing St. Patrick’s Day in Boston in 1737 and the first St. Patrick’s Day parade in America was held in New York City in 1766.