by Diana G. Lea

Created on: March 04, 2009   Last Updated: March 14, 2009

St. Patrick's Day History and Celebration

St. Patrick's Day will soon be here and many of us, Irish or not, will be wearing the green. Who was St. Patrick and how has it came about that the national holiday of Ireland and a saint of the Roman Catholic Church is celebrated around the world by those who are neither Irish nor Catholic?

St. Patrick is the patron saint of Ireland. Parades in his honor have been held in Ireland since the early 18th century. In 1903 Saint Patrick's Day became a public holiday in Ireland as well as a religious celebration. The first St. Patrick's Day parade held in the Irish Free State was held in Dublin in 1931. In the mid-1990s the Irish government began using St. Patrick's Day as a platform to promote Ireland and the Irish culture. The first St. Patrick's Festival was held March 17, 1996 in Dublin, Ireland. From 1997 to 2005 the St. Patrick's Festival grew from a three day to a five day event. In 2009 the Official St. Patrick Festival website states that the celebration will be held from March 12 through March 17 in Dublin, Ireland. The advertisement reads: "This year's Festival programme promises to make FREE FUN the order of the day for the six-day Festival."

Patron saint or not, St. Patrick is enthusiastically celebrated in Australia, Great Britain, Canada, New Zealand, the United States and many other countries. Celebrations of all kinds abound, from exchanging cards, preparing traditional food (corn beef and cabbage) and drink (green beer), the "wearin' of the green", leprechauns, and parades. The first celebration of St. Patrick's Day in the United States took place in Boston, Massachusetts in 1737. New York's first Saint Patrick's Day parade was held in 1762 by Irish soldiers in the British army. The famous St. Patrick's Day Encampment was initiated by General George Washington who gave his Continental Army troop March 17th as a holiday.

St. Patrick was born Maewyn Succat, a Roman Britain enslaved by Irish raiders when he was about sixteen years old. He remained as a slave in Ireland for six years before escaping and returning to his home and family in Great Britain. Later he joined the Roman Catholic Church and returned to Ireland as a missionary. Popular folklore claims St. Patrick banished all snakes from Ireland. While it is true that Ireland does not have snakes, scientific evidence reveals that Ireland never had snakes after the glacier age. It is possible that the snakes referred to in the folklore are the ancient Druid

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