While the modern day recognition of St. Patrick’s Day revolves around drinking, the roots of this “holiday” have nothing at all to do with alcohol. That leads into some interesting facts about the celebration of St. Patrick’s Day.
1. March 17th, the day of St. Patrick’s Day, began as a feast celebration on the date of St. Patrick’s death. St. Patrick is the Patron Saint of Ireland. The day was first celebrated with a mass service and a meal.
2. St. Patrick wasn’t even Irish. He was actually born in Britain and raised in through an aristocratic Christian family. According to folklore, he was kidnapped at 16 and taken to Ireland, later escaping and going back to Britain when he heard a voice in his dreams telling him to go to Ireland. He ended up spending the rest of his life converting the Irish to Christianity.
3. Until 1970, pubs in Ireland were closed on March 17th. This holiday was a relatively tame holiday until it was brought to America. Then America turned it into the big party we know of it as today. This can be traced to the one “day off” of Lent in the Christian faith.
4. New York City’s St. Patrick’s Day parade is the largest parade in the U.S. While most Chicagoans take pride in their downtown parade, it is not the largest. It is though, the one parade where a local body of water is dyed “perfectly” green.
5. New York City’s St. Patrick’s Day parade is also the oldest civilian parade in the world. Dating back to the 1700’s, the parade has it’s early roots with the Irish immigrants. Now, anyone can go if they wear green!
6. Sales of Irish Whiskey go up 400% on St. Patty’s Day. Yes, the alcohol consumption is huge, and 400% proves it. You can see packed bars across many major American cities on St. Patrick’s Day weekend.
7. The biggest bar tab on St. Patrick’s day was $245 Million. This is not a joke. Whether or not this decision was influenced by alcohol, it is an astounding number, and simply shows the amount of alcohol consumed on St. Patty’s day.
8. 1% of the world’s beer is consumed on St. Patty’s Day. I think you get the point.
9. 83% of American adults wore green this St. Patricks Day. Shoulder to shoulder those adults would stretch from California to New York there and back. Twice.
10. An estimated 13 Million pints of Guinness are consumed around the world on St. Patrick’s Day. That’s enough beer to fill 60% of the Empire State Building.
11. The first St. Patrick’s Day celebration was in Boston in 1737. Boston is known for their basketball team the Celtics and a lot of irish themes are central in Boston culture. It isn’t really surprising to see that Boston was the city to hold the first St. Patrick’s Day celebration
12. The average person will spend about $36.52 on St. Patrick’s Day. If everyone spent that on St. Patrick’s Day, the United States should be raking in about $4.6 billion this year. A lot of green for a green holiday.