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When most people talk about St. Patrick’s Day, the color green, leprechauns, and four-leaf clovers instantly come to mind and the true meaning of this holiday is often forgotten. Why do we really celebrate this holiday?

St. Patrick’s Day is a feast day and anniversary of the death of the religious leader of the same name.

The Irish have been celebrating this holiday March 17 for over 1,000 years with dancing and feasts of the traditional Irish meal of corned beef and cabbage.  Today many different cultures celebrate this holiday, particularly the United States, Ireland, Canada, and Australia.

St. Patrick was born in Roman Britain during the fifth century. At age sixteen he was kidnapped and taken to Ireland as a slave. Fortunately, he was able to escape, but he returned to introduce Christianity to the Irish.

Irish soldiers serving in the English military held the first St. Patrick’s day parade in New York City March 17, 1792 to honor the religious holiday and connect with their Irish roots. Today, it is the world’s oldest civilian parade and the largest in the United States, with over 150,000 people participating and three million people attending to watch.  The parade is five hours in length, which also makes it one of the longest in the world.

Many of the Saint Patrick’s Day symbols have meanings which have been forgotten in the commercialism of the celebrations.  The shamrock, (three leaf clover) was chosen to be Ireland’s emblem after the Irish legend that St. Patrick used it to explain the Holy Trinity (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit). The original color of St. Patrick was blue, but in the 19^th century it changed to green to signify the beautiful green landscapes of the Emerald Isle.

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