St. Patrick's Day is celebrated on March 17th with great zeal by both Irish and non-Irish communities (UK, US, Canada, Australia) around the globe. The feast day of St. Patrick is celebrated in memory of the patron saint of Ireland, Saint Patrick. It is marked by the wearing of green color and shamrock and leprechaun designs. It is celebrated in Ireland with parades, community feasts, mass and charity shows.Another unique thing about this day is the St. Patrick day parade which takes place is various locations like Montreal, Birmingham, Manchester, Munich. In the US the most famous locations for these parades are New York, Savannah (Georgia), Las Vegas, Seattle, etc. New York parade has become the largest parade in the world.
The Chicago river is dyed green for this festival. Also the Trafalgar Square fountains in Great Britain, where the parade took place was dyed green this year (2008).
After the day long celebrations there are long parties in Irish pubs. I saw a part of this celebration in Virginia Beach, VA in an Irish pub called Murphy's. Everyone was dressed in green and there was good music and drinks served.
So go Green and celebrate the St. Patrick's Day in Irish Style!!
3 comments:
ever wonder what's the significance of the GREEN color? but seems to an interesting event..specially if good drinks and food is served!! :P
Ohh you got me wrong. The food and drink is not for free. Drinks are much cheaper that day. Irish people seem to be heavy drinkers :)
The significance of the green color has a little story behind it. The Ireland flag is a tricolor with orange, white and green. Orange represents the protestants who do not celebrate St. Patrick's day. Green represents the Catholic population who celebrate this day as St. Patrick was a Catholic. White stands for unity between the two.
Oh one more thing, you get pinched if you don't wear green on this day, esp. if you wear orange.
For those in Washington DC, don't miss the Shamrock fest http://www.shamrockfest.com/2009/
If you register early, you will get cheaper tickets. The event is on Sat, March 14th
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