St. Patrick's Day: Bet You Didn't Know | History

millions of people around the world on their best green attire every March 17th to celebrate Saint Patrick's Day but there is a lot we bet you didn't know about Ireland's patron saints to start with Saint Patrick wasn't even Irish he was born around the fifth century in Brittany then part of the Roman Empire at sixteen he was kidnapped by Irish Raiders and spent six years in captivity he converted to Christianity and later returned to Ireland to spend the rest of his life working as a Christian missionary after Patrick died on March 17 461 he was

largely forgotten until mythology and legend grew and centuries later he was honored as the patron saint of Ireland according to one famous myth Patrick drove all the snakes from Ireland the story symbolized Patrick cleansing the island of paganism there's just one problem Ireland never had any snakes to begin with the Emerald Isle is surrounded by water two frigid for snakes to migrate their weather from Britain or anywhere else according to another famous story Patrick used the three leaves of the Shamrock to explain the Holy Trinity as a result people in 18th century Ireland started wearing

shamrocks on March 17 to signify their Irish Christian pride that tradition later grew into wearing green clothing a popular Saint Patrick's Day custom today those shamrocks don't really exist we know them as any one of several three leap plants such as wood sorrel or white and yellow clover as important as st. Patrick is to Irish history we bet you didn't know the tradition of celebrating March 17th with parades actually started in America the parade tradition really took off after the great potato famine hit Ireland in the 1840s sending hundreds of thousands of Irish immigrants pouring

into New York the boss and other American cities the first record of a st. Patrick's Day parade in New York dates to 1762 when a group of Irish soldiers serving with the British marched a few blocks to a tavern in lower Manhattan today it's the largest and longest st. Patrick's Day parade boasting close to 200,000 participants and nearly 3 million spectators each year so this March 17 we hope we'll be wearing green and toasting to some st. Patrick's Day history that we bet you didn't know you