Not long before the snow melts and leaves return, the color green makes a reappearance for St. Patrick’s Day.
People in the U.S. celebrate Saint Patrick, who lived in the 400s, during this originally nonsecular and Roman Catholic holiday with drinking, parades and maybe a few references to the “emerald isles.”
Frederick Suppe, a history professor, said this is a little different than how Irish citizens first celebrated the religious holiday.
“In recent decades, as television and movies have helped Irish people become aware of Irish-American parades and enthusiastic drinking of green beer in bars, the Irish have begun to imitate some of these North American practices,” he said.
IN IRELAND
Tara Connolly, 18, who lives in Northern Ireland, “goes out” a couple weekends a month. She hits the usual bars and clubs, though there aren’t many in the small town of Enniskillen, where the drinking age is 18.
On St. Patrick’s Day, Connolly goes to church in the morning. She identifies as Catholic, a minority in Ireland, according to the 2011 Northern Ireland census where 48 percent of the population said they are Protestant.
Making it to mass on St. Patrick’s Day does not require much planning for Connolly. All schools close for the official bank holiday.
Connolly receives a blessed shamrock during the morning services. Churchgoers wear the plant throughout the day until it withers.
“It’s really weird because you start at mass and you end the night really drunk,” she said. “It’s so stereotypical for Irish people to get drunk, but it is what it is.”
Connolly says the revelry isn’t as obvious in Northern Ireland. In the south, however, huge festivals last for days she said.
Celebrations in Connolly’s town begin with small-scale parades. She said it isn’t uncommon to see at least five elementary aged children dressed like St. Patrick, carrying a crook and wearing a pointed bishop’s hat.
“It’s quite civilized here,” she said.
However, in college towns like Belfast, the capital of Northern Ireland, students haul their couches into the streets and sing throughout the night.
Revelers drink Guinness at pubs where traditional Irish musicians play fiddles and dancing breaks out.
Connolly does not plan on busing to the big name festivals in Dublin and other southern cities this year, although many people will.
“I think it depends on your family over here. I know my family was never that into doing something for St. Patrick’s, whereas I know families who go and stay in a caravan down south,” she said.
IN THE U.S.
In the United States, St. Patrick’s Day events take place throughout the country, the largest in Cleveland and Boston.
American traditions with St. Patricks Day began after an influx of Irish immigrants to the United State’s in the 19th century.
“Trying to preserve some of their Irish identity and reacting to discrimination against them, they found that celebrating St. Patrick’s day especially with parades in cities like Boston, New York, Chicago and Toronto, was a way to celebrate their Irish heritage,” Suppe said.
Irish immigrants are not the only ones who enjoy the merriment of the holiday now. It’s the fourth largest drinking day of the year, according to a Yahoo study titled “Alcohol and America.”
According to the St. Patrick’s Festival Dublin’s website, “St. Patrick’s is the day when everyone wants to be Irish.”
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