For many years, today’s date has been a day for celebration full of eating, drinking, singing and of course parading. Bigger than Mardi Gras, this event takes place around the world from Asia and all the way over to South America. This wondrous holiday and death date of a saint originates from Ireland the source of leprechauns and yes, shamrocks. Like a few holidays the world knows today such as Valentine’s Day, Saint Patrick’s Day has a religious background full of legends and sketchy facts.

St. Patrick's Day Parade in Dublin, Ireland. Julien Behal / AP

Historians tries to roughly surmrise the exact dates of Saint Patrick’s life, however it is generally accepted that this saint was whisked away to Ireland as a slave from Britain at the age of 16 and escaped after the voice of the Judeo-Christian God supposedly instructed him. According to traditional tales of St. Patrick, he studied in church and became a priest, returned to Ireland to preach to all classes of a “pagan” society about God, and had opened numerous churches and schools along the northern and western coasts of Ireland. It is even said that he had driven every snake from Ireland, though this is actually a metaphor for driving away pagans with his teachings of God as there have never been any snakes in Ireland ever since the ice age.

After Saint Patrick died on March 17th, he shortly became an instant favorite of the Irish Catholic church becoming the patron saint of Ireland and with his death date the church established a religious feast day in the period of Catholic fasting (Lent). It became Lá Fhéile Pádraig, Saint Patrick’s Day which slowly grew as a secular holiday.

With the help of cultural diffusion throughout the world in part of the mass Irish immigrations to other countries due to civil unrest and regular famines, Saint Patrick’s day grew and grew. Instead of the pleasent green seen today, the color for Saint Patrick’s day was actually a traditional blue.

 

With the help of American culture, Saint Patrick’s day became a robust holiday full of partying as we can see by the 2009 Saint Patrick’s Festival which had nearly one million people attending. The first ever parade for Saint Patrick’s day took place in Boston, Massachusetts which quickly spread to other locations. New York City or rather Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue contains the annual, largest and probably the most extravagant St. Patrick’s day parade in the entire world. Today’s 249th St. Patrick’s day parade was nothing short of amazing, ridiculously fun, and very exhilarating. Sadly, due to the city’s budget cuts in parades which conveniently saves millions of dollars for other functions of the city, this parade may have been the last of its kind.

Shamrocks or clovers. These were said to be used by Saint Patrick to explain the Holy Trinity, though it is amusing to wonder what would've happened if he picked a four-leaf clover.

This holiday has even wormed itself into foreign diplomacy and politics as today President Obama met the Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen in a friendly meeting. Furthermore, U.S politicians especially use the parades as oppurtunities to be on the floats bolstering their public image in time for their elections. Unfortunately gays themselves are not allowed to be in the parade under their own banners, which can be considered one of the few negatives the holiday brings depending on your perspective.

The White House had dyed its fountain green in celebration of St. Patrick's Day. Many other U.S cities dye their rivers green for several hours.

In Ireland itself, Catholics go to mass in the morning then take their share of the party in the afternoon, this day did not become a holiday for the country until the early onset of the 1900′s and was finally taken advantage of by the Irish government to display its country’s culture proudly to the rest of the world. Many countries including England, Argentina, and New Zealand along with even the Republic of Korea celebrates this day as a secular holiday. The majority, if not all, of the celebrators around the world usually wears green in day-long/night-long parties and wild galas this day brings.

American President Barack Obama meets the Irish Prime Minister today. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

Many in the religious department chastise what St. Patrick’s day has become, a very secular and festive holiday in total opposite to the pious, religious feastday it originally was. Oh well.

Most of the world is Irish on this day, regardless of their background, it relieves most of our everyday stresses for even the slightest moment in life, it gives us green beer (unfortunately no green eggs and ham!), and it is truly a day for being care-free and celebrating.

Happy Saint Patrick’s Day!