St. Patrick’s Day is traditionally known for leprechauns, beer and green everything.
Many students think the Irish holiday was started in Ireland, and is all about drinking green beer and having a good time, the holiday actually has religious orgins.
Dylan Waters, 22, foreign language senior from Memphis, plans to get drunk on green beer for St. Patrick’s Day.
“St. Paddy’s is all about beer and babes for me,” Waters said. “I have no idea who started the tradition to get drunk and party on March 17, but I’m completely about that life.”
St Patrick’s Day was started as a way to honor the 5th-century saint, who is credited with bringing Christianity to Ireland.
At 16, he was kidnapped and sent to be a slave in Ireland. After St. Patrick was reunited with his family six years later somewhere near Wales, he went back to Ireland to complete his calling to priesthood.
He died on March 17, 461 C.E. in Ireland, which is why the holiday is celebrated that day each year. Kayla Joseph, 20, communications sophomore, wants more people to celebrate St. Patrick’s for more than just the beer.
“My granddaddy served in the Ireland for a year when he was in the Army,” Joseph said. “I remember him telling me stories about how the Irish people celebrate their faith on St. Paddy’s. Drinking is part of their culture, but their faith is also a big in their lives.”
The modern day holiday was started in the United States onMarch 17, 1762 by Irish soldiers serving in the English military, according to the History website.
They marched through New York playing Irish music and connecting with fellow Irishmen around the city.
The next few years more cities like Boston, Chicago and Philadelphia started having parades to honor the Irishmen in each city.
Tyler Sheets studies the history of Irish culture at The Catholic University of America in Washington D.C.
“There isn’t really a turning point in Irish history to say how St. Patrick’s Day became how it is today,” Sheets said in an email. “It’s a lot of Americanization and just time that has changed things.”
Wearing green on March 17 comes from the mythical tradition that if you’re wearing green you are invisible to leprechauns, therefore they can’t pinch you, Sheets said.
“It’s a fun tradition, unless you’re caught not wearing green on St. Patty’s Day,” he said.
Guinness, an Irish dry stout that originated from Dublin, is the most common beer drank on St. Patrick’s Day. About 13 million pints of Guinness will be consumed worldwide on March 17; more than double the 5.5 million pints drank worldwide on every other day, according to the International Business Times and Guinness.
Nearly $250 million will be spent on beer on St. Patrick’s Day in the U.S. with each person spending an average of $40.
