Eclectic facts about Ireland and St. Patrick’s Day
Today is St. Patrick’s Day, which is unrelated to Captain Picard or Patrick Stewart, but I like this meme I saw online. 😀
I’m part Irish in terms of ancestry. So in hono(u)r of St. Patrick’s Day, here are 10 interesting or fun facts about St. Patrick’s Day and/or the Irish — some of which I already knew, others I found out thanks to writing this blog post.
Happy St. Patrick’s Day, and if you choose to celebrate with green beer (or any colo(u)r), please do so responsibly.
St. Patrick was actually British! 🤯 Although some of the history is fuzzy, historians believe he was brought to Ireland as a slave, escaped to England, then went back to Ireland to spread Christianity.
A shamrock has 3 leaves, not four! ☘️ A four-leafed clover is popular in the US because the superstition is that a four-leafed clover brings good luck, but a three-leafed clover is actually the Irish symbol.
There are more people of Irish ancestry in the US than there are in Ireland! 🇮🇪 🇺🇸 Some estimates put it at 7x more people in the US who are at least partially Irish than in Ireland itself.
Originally, leprechauns wore red, not green, and could be mean mf-ers. 💰Don’t let Lucky Charms and Disney fool you. They weren’t all that common in Irish folklore, but leprechauns were mischievous at least, but sometimes mean, both in the US and the Irish sense of the word — stingy and not nice.
From Wikipedia, the source of all knowledge. 🙃
5. The Irish don’t say several of the stereotypical expressions we think they do in the US. 🚫 I only found out today that they don’t say “Top o’ the mornin’ to ya!” I already knew that Begorrah! wasn’t something they say in Ireland. There is also no “Kiss me, I’m Irish” in Ireland, and may or may not be a good idea in the US depending on who sees your T-shirt or pin that says it!
6. Irish creme isn’t a traditional Irish drink. 🥴 It was invented by Bailey’s as a marketing ploy. It was a marketing firm in Dublin that came up with it, but it’s mostly popular in the US, Canada, and the UK.
7. Halloween, on the other hand, does come from an Irish tradition. 🌾 It started as Samhain, a Celtic harvest festival that some who are Pagans or Neo-pagans still observe.
8. It’s St. Patrick’s Day, or possibly St. Paddy’s Day, but NOT St. Patty’s Day. ☘️ Remember Peppermint Patty from Peanuts? (If you’re older or have an Apple TV subscription, you might). Patty is a girl’s name. Paddy can be a nickname for Patrick. Just because Peppermint Patty usually wears green doesn’t mean that’s the name of the holiday.
The Chicago River is dyed green for St. Patrick’s Day.
9. The Chicago River was originally dyed green to track water pollution. 🛶 It was only after the fact that sanitation workers realized the dye could be used to celebrate Chicago’s large Irish population.
10. The Irish have a nationalized healthcare system. 🏥 I usually talk politics online and on this blog, so I couldn’t help but slip this one in there. If we want to be more like the Irish, maybe instead of dying our beer green, we could fight for Medicare For All! And I’m sure mentioning this at a St. Paddy’s Day celebration will make you the life of the party! 🎊
Sources: https://www.history.com/news/st-patricks-day-facts, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2013/03/17/the-irish-american-population-is-seven-times-larger-than-ireland/, http://dialectblog.com/2011/06/27/top-o-the-morning-myth-and-reality/, https://www.macmillandictionaryblog.com/top-of-the-morning-to-yourself, http://www.sassandshamrocks.com/surviving-st-patricks-day-america/
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