Wednesday, March 17, 2010

St. Patrick's Day in America

Everyone loves St. Patrick's Day. You are able to party, drink and be with your loved ones. It is a great holiday to remind yourself of who you are, no matter what nationality. St. Patrick's Day is celebrated on March 17. This is his feast day and the anniversary of his death, which was in the fifth century. St. Patrick is also the patron saint of Ireland. The Irish have looked at this day as a day of holiness for over 1,000 years. It occurs during the season of lent. Traditionally, Irish families would attend church in the morning and celebrate in the afternoon.

The St. Patrick's Day traditions came to America in 1737. That was the first year St. Patrick's Day was publicly celebrated in America. The first St. Patrick's Day parade took place in the United States on March 17, 1762. Irish soldiers serving in the English military marched through New York City. This helped these men to reconnect with their Irish roots. Over the next 40 years, Americans became intrigued by Irish patriotism. Americans prompted the rise of "Irish Aid", which held annual parades featuring bagpipes and drums. Later in 1848, there were several New York Irish Aid Societies. They all got together and decided to have one big St. Patrick's Day parade. Today, that parade is the world's oldest civilian parade and the largest in the United States, with over 150,000 participants. Each year, almost 3 million people line the 1.5 mile parade route to watch the procession, which lasts around 5 hours. Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, and Savannah also throw parades with between 10,000 and 20,000 participants.

In Chicago, every year on March 17, people take part in dyeing the Chicago River green. The tradition started in 1962 when city pollution control realized that green dye could be a fun way to celebrate the holiday. That year they put about 100 pounds of green vegetable dye in the river, which happened to make the river green for an entire week. Now, they only put about 40 pounds of dye into the river to reduce damage to the environment. Chicago historian's claim that it was their idea to dye the Chicago River green, but some Savannah Natives believed that they came up with the idea in their town. They point out that in 1961, Tom Wolley, the mayor of Savannah, had plans to dye a river by them green for St. Patrick's Day. There happened to be rough waters that day so they could not dye the river green. They never tried again.


Today, St. Patrick's Day is celebrated by people of all different backgrounds in the United States, Canada, and Australia. St. Patrick's Day has been celebrated in other locations such as Japan, Singapore and Russia. North America is home to the largest productions. Many people believe that this holiday is just meant for partying with your friends and drinking. However, St. Patrick's Day should mean a lot more to everyone. It should remind us of where we came from and to be proud of it. Although St. Patrick's Day was founded by a man in Ireland, America loves to join in on the fun too!

"St. Patrick's Day." Www.history.com. 2010. Web. 17 Mar. 2010.

21 comments:

  1. I never knew that so much effort was put into St. Patrick's day throughout the world!

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  2. St.Patricks day is ok, but i honestly don't care if it exist or not.

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  3. I loved st. patties day when i was little and believed in leprechauns. now that i'm older and not Irish, i could care less. Good post though.

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  4. I like the day because we get a jeans day but other than that I really don't think there is a point for non-Irish people to celebrate it. Good Post!

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  5. I actually like St. Patrick's day, and I hope that we do not stop celebrating it.

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  7. St. Patrick's day has really lost most of it's meaning here in the United States, and I bet you that most people you see celebrating it can't even tell you its roots.

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  8. I didn't know St. Patrick's Day was so popular!

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  9. St. Patty's day is awesome and I hope it stays around.

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  10. St. Patrick's day is awesome. We need to go field trip to see Chicago river that turning greem~!!!

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  11. I agree with Rice! We should go on a field trip to see the Chicago river when it's green! lol But I didn't know St. Patricks day was so popular. Good post!

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  12. St. Patrick's Day is just another day to have an excuse to have fun and to get together with family and friends. I don't see anything wrong with that. Just because you do not know anything about the tradition, it becomes your own version of the celebration.

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  13. I didn't know about St. Patrick's day before. Because we dont have this holiday in my country I didn't even know what St. Patrick day is..
    I'm interested in this post... It's really helping me to understand about St. Patrick day. good post:)

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  14. I didn't know that so many people celebrated St. Patrick's Day and I'm not Irish but my family still celebrates it. Good post!

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  15. I like St. Patrick's Day better than St. Valentine's day. I like this post.

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  16. I didn't know anything about St. Patrick day before. Because we don't celebrate this day in my country. And i didn't know what the purpose of this day before. Now I know something about this day. Thank you good post.

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  17. It is interesting how a holiday meant to celebrate the life of a great saint has turned into a day of drunken partying.

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  18. Now I know what is really going down at St. Patrick's day parties! That was great information!

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  19. St. Patties day has been a great holiday for many people. Yes it is a night to go out, but some people need that every once in a while.

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  20. I didn't really notice too much St. Patrick's festivities this year. But then again, I'm not 21 yet haha.

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  21. Thanks for putting the effort you did into this, Cherryh - it shows!

    The Irish holiday is so much more pronounced around here because of the large and old immigrant population in Chicago.

    I bet no one can tell me why there's a large Irish immigrant population in Chicago...

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