St. Patrick’s Day Fun Facts
For St. Patrick’s Day, Fox pulled out 10 celebratory tidbits on the Patron Saint of the Irish. Here’s a few, in summary:
Blue, not green is the color originally associated with St. Patrick.
The first St Patrick’s Day parade took place in 1737 in Boston, followed in 1762 by New York. George Washington allowed his soldiers a holiday on March 17, 1780 as “an act of solidarity with the Irish in their fight for independence.”
Until the 1970’s, all pubs were shut in Ireland on St Patrick’s Day, and the sole venue selling drinks was the annual dog show. This might be why the American parades are so successful.
St Patrick’s Day is a public holiday in Ireland and also in Monserrat “the Emerald Isle of the Carribean,” so called because it was settled in 1633 by Irish migrants from St Kitts. FYI, I don’t thing Guinness got their way AGAIN with Prop 3-17.
According to legend, on the day of Judgement, while Christ judges all other nations, St. Patrick will be the judge of the Irish. I hope I get invited to that party.
Since 1962, tons of green dye are tipped on St Patrick’s Day into the Chicago river, although the quantity has reduced, for environmental reasons, from 100 to 40.
You can read the rest at Fox.com or see if we got anything right in our own article.
