A Beer Lovers Dream

February 2009

History of St. Patrick's Day

Taken from the History Channel website
http://www.history.com/content/stpatricksday/history-of-the-holiday

St. Patrick's Day is celebrated on March 17, the anniversary of his death in the fifth century. The Irish have observed this day as a religious holiday for thousands of years. The first St. Patrick's Day parade took place not in Ireland, but in the United States. Irish soldiers serving in the English military marched through New York City on March 17, 1762. Along with their music, the parade helped the soldiers to reconnect with their Irish roots, as well as fellow Irishmen serving in the English army.

When the Great Potato Famine hit Ireland in 1845, close to a million Catholic Irish began to pour into America to escape starvation. Despised for their religious beliefs and funny accents by the American Protestant majority, the immigrants had trouble finding even menial jobs. But their numbers soon became an important voting block. The annual St. Patrick's Day parades became a show of strength for Irish Americans as well as a must-attend event for a slew of political candidates. In 1948, President Truman attended the New York City St. Patrick's Day parade, a proud moment for the many Irish whose ancestors had to fight stereotypes and racial prejudice to find acceptance in America.

Today, St. Patrick's Day is celebrated by people of all backgrounds in the United States, Canada, and Australia and in Japan, Singapore, and Russia. In modern-day Ireland, St. Patrick's Day has traditionally been a religious occasion. In fact, up until the 1970s, Irish laws mandated that pubs be closed on March 17. Beginning in 1995, however, the Irish government began a national campaign to use St. Patrick's Day as an opportunity to drive tourism and showcase Ireland to the rest of the world. Last year, close to one million people took part in Ireland 's St. Patrick's Festival in Dublin, a multi-day celebration featuring parades, concerts, outdoor theater productions, and fireworks shows.