St. Patrick's Day
Monday, March 17, 2031
St. Patrick's Day
St Patrick’s Day is celebrated each year on the 17th of March to commemorate St Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland.
What was once a religious holiday has become an international celebration of Ireland, its culture and its history. In Ireland and beyond, the day is marked through parades, music, Irish dancing, traditional Irish food and wearing the colour green!
The biggest celebration is in Dublin, with a three-day festival that includes the St Patrick’s Day Parade. This parade welcomes over 500,000 attendees each year, and the participants include marching bands, charities, cultural organisations and youth groups.
Those with enough “luck of the Irish” to experience St Patrick’s Day on the Emerald Isle can expect to enjoy live performances of Irish folk music featuring instruments like the tin whistle, fiddle, bodhrán and harp – accompanied by Irish dancing such as the step dance, the sean-nós dance, or the céilí dance!
In Ireland, St Patrick’s Day is a national public holiday, where banks, government offices and many businesses close. It is considered bad luck not to wear the colour green on St Patrick’s Day! Superstition dictates that leprechauns will pinch those who go without wearing green clothes.
St Patrick’s Day is widely recognized across the globe, and the biggest St Patrick’s Day parade in the world is in New York City. Elsewhere in the States, the Chicago River is dyed green with an eco-friendly powder, an event that dates back to 1962. Large celebrations are also found in cities such as Boston, Philadelphia and Savannah – in the latter, St Patrick’s Day is a legal holiday!