St.Patricks day is celebrated annually on March 17th, the anniversary of his death in the fifth century. St.Patrick’s day 2023 will take place on Friday March 17th. The Irish have observed this day as a religious holiday for over 1000 years. On St.Patrick’s Day, which falls in the Christian season of lent, Irish families would traditionally attend church in the morning and celebrate in the afternoon. Lenten prohibitions against the consumption of meat were waived and people would dance, drink and feast on the traditional meal of Irish bacon and cabbage. St.Patrick lived during the fifth century, he’s the patron saint of Ireland and not a national apostle. Born in Roman Britain, he was kidnapped and brought to Ireland as a slave at 16. He later escaped, but returned to Ireland and was credited with bringing Christianity to its people.In the centuries following Patrick’s death people believed was on March 17th, the mythology surrounding his life became ever more ingrained in the Irish culture:probably the most well-known legend of St.Patrick is that he explained the Holy Trinity (father,son and holy spirit) as the three leaves of a native Irish clover, the shamrock. Since around the ninth century or tenth century, people in Ireland have been observing the Roman Catholic feast day of St.Patrick’s day parade took place not in Ireland but in America. Over the next 35 years, Irish patriotism among American immigrants flourished, prompting the rise of so-called “Irish aid” of Saint Patrick and the Hibernian society. Each group would hold annual parades featuring bagpipes (which actually first became popular in the Scottish and British armies) and drums. In 1848, several New York Irish aid societies decided to unite their parades to form one official New York City St.Patrick’s day parade. Today, that 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 1.5 mile parade routes to watch the procession,which takes more than 5 hours. Up until the mid 19th century,most Irish immigrants in America were members of the protestant middle class. When the great potato famine hit Ireland in 1845, close to 1 million poor and uneducated Irish Catholics began pouring into America to escape starvation.

Despised for their alien religious beliefs and unfamiliar accents by the American protestant majority, 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 cartoons as drunk and violent monkeys. The American Irish soon began to realize, however, that their large and growing numbers drowned them with political power that had yet to be exploited. They started to organize their voting bloc, known as the “green machine,” which 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 for a slew of political candidates.in 1948, president Harry S. Truman attended New York City’s St.Patrick’s day parade, a proud moment for the Irish Americans whose ancestors had to fight stereotypes and racial prejudice to find acceptance in the “new world”. In my opinion St. Patricks day is a day to celebrate the Irish community and be proud to be Irish. I feel like it’s a wonderful day and should be celebrated more in the Irish way.