History of St. Patrick’s Day

St. Patrick, who lived during the fifth century, is the patron saint of Ireland and its national apostle. Born in Roman Britain, he was kidnapped and brought to Ireland as a slave at age 16. He later escaped but returned to Ireland and is credited with spreading Christianity among its people.

In the centuries following Patrick’s death (believed to have been on March 17, 493), the mythology surrounding his life became ever more ingrained in the Irish culture. Perhaps the most well-known legend of St. Patrick is that he explained Christianity’s Holy Trinity—the Father, Son and Holy Spirit—using the three leaves of a native Irish clover, the shamrock.

St. Patrick’s Day began in Ireland around the ninth or 10th century A.D. However, many of the holiday’s traditions actually started in America in the 1600s and 1700s.

Since around the ninth or 10th century, people in Ireland have been observing a Roman Catholic feast day honoring St. Patrick on March 17. The first St. Patrick’s Day parade took place not in Ireland but in North America. Records show that a St. Patrick’s Day parade was held on March 17, 1601, in the Spanish colony of St. Augustine, Florida. The parade, and a St. Patrick’s Day celebration a year earlier, were organized by the Spanish colony’s Irish vicar Ricardo Artur.

More than a century later, homesick Irish soldiers serving in the British military marched in New York City on March 17, 1762, to honor the Irish patron saint. Enthusiasm for the St. Patrick’s Day parades in New York City, Chicago and Boston and other early American cities only grew from there.

Over the next decades, Irish patriotism among American immigrants flourished, prompting the rise of so-called Irish aid societies like the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick and the Hibernian Society. Each group held annual parades featuring bagpipes (also used in the Scottish and British armies) and drums.

In 1851, several New York Irish aid societies decided to unite their parades to form one official New York City St. Patrick’s Day Parade. Today, the New York City parade is the world’s oldest civilian parade and the largest in the United States, with over 150,000 participants. Each year, nearly 3 million people line the 1.75-mile parade route to watch the procession, which takes more than five hours. Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia and Savannah, Georgia, also celebrate the day with parades involving between 10,000 and 20,000 participants each. In 2020, the New York City parade was one of the first major city events to be canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic; it was replaced by a low-profile ceremonial march in 2021. The parade in New York and others around the country returned in 2022.

Up until the mid-19th century, most Irish immigrants in the United States were members of the Protestant middle class. That changed when the Great Potato Famine hit Ireland in 1845. Over the next six years, close to 1 million poor and largely uneducated Irish Catholics immigrated to the U.S. to escape starvation.

Despised by the American Protestant majority for their alien religious beliefs and unfamiliar accents, the immigrants had trouble finding even menial jobs. When Irish Americans in the country’s cities took to the streets on St. Patrick’s Day to celebrate their heritage, newspapers portrayed them in offensive cartoons as drunk, violent apes or monkeys.

The American Irish soon began to realize, however, that their large and growing numbers endowed them with political power that had yet to be exploited. They started to organize, and their voting bloc, known as the “green machine,” became an important swing vote for political hopefuls. Suddenly, annual St. Patrick’s Day parades became a show of strength for Irish Americans, as well as a must-attend event for scores of political candidates.

In 1948, President Harry S. Truman attended New York City’s St. Patrick’s Day parade, a proud moment for the many Irish Americans whose ancestors had fought stereotypes and racial prejudice to find acceptance in the New World.

As Irish immigrants spread across the United States, other cities developed their own traditions. One of these is Chicago’s annual dyeing of the Chicago River green. The practice started in 1962, when city pollution-control workers used dyes to trace illegal sewage discharges and realized that the green dye might provide a unique way to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day. That year, they released about 100 pounds of green vegetable dye into the river–enough to keep it green for a week. Today, to minimize environmental damage, only 40 pounds of dye are used, and the river turns green for only a few hours.

Although Chicago historians claim their city’s idea for a river of green was original, some natives of Savannah, Georgia (which began its annual St. Patrick’s Day in 1813) believe the idea originated in their town. They point out that, in 1961, a hotel restaurant manager named Tom Woolley convinced city officials to dye Savannah River green. The experiment didn’t exactly work as planned, and the water only took on a slight greenish hue. Savannah never attempted to dye its river again, but Woolley maintains (though others refute the claim) that he personally suggested the idea to Chicago’s then-Mayor Richard J. Daley.

Today, people of all backgrounds celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, especially throughout the United States, Canada and Australia. Although North America is home to the largest productions, St. Patrick’s Day is celebrated around the world in locations far from Ireland, including Japan, Singapore and Russia. Popular St. Patrick’s Day recipes include Irish soda bread, corned beef, cabbage and champ, or mashed potatoes made with green onions, butter and milk. In the United States, people often wear green on St. Patrick’s Day.

In Ireland, St. Patrick’s Day has traditionally been a spiritual and religious occasion. In fact, up until 1970, Irish laws mandated that pubs be closed on March 17. Beginning in 1995, however, the Irish government began a national campaign to use interest in St. Patrick’s Day to drive tourism and showcase Ireland and Irish culture to the rest of the world.

One icon of Irish folklore is the leprechaun. The original Irish name for these figures of folklore is luchorpán, thought to mean “small-bodied fellow.” Belief in leprechauns probably stems from Celtic beliefs in fairies, tiny men and women who could use their magical powers to serve good or evil. In Celtic folktales, leprechauns were cranky souls responsible for mending the shoes of other fairies.

Although only minor figures in many Celtic folktales, leprechauns were known for their trickery, which they often used to protect their much-fabled treasure. Leprechauns have their own holiday on May 13 but are also celebrated on St. Patrick's Day, with many people dressing up as the wily fairies.