10 Things You Might Not Know About St. Patrick's Day | The Odyssey Online
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Politics and Activism

10 Things You Might Not Know About St. Patrick's Day

Forget what you thought you knew about March 17.

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10 Things You Might Not Know About St. Patrick's Day
Ranch and Coast

You know you're supposed to wear green so you won't get pinched. You hope to find a leprechaun to lead you to a pot of gold. But did you know that St. Patrick didn't actually run all the snakes out of Ireland? The temperature of Ireland is actually too cold for snakes to inhabit!

Here are 10 more fascinating facts about St. Patrick's Day that you probably never knew.

1. St. Patrick wasn’t even Irish.

St. Patrick was actually born in Britain. He was kidnapped at the age of 16 and taken to Ireland as a slave. When he escaped 10 years later he took refuge in an English monastery before returning to Ireland to introduce Christianity in the year 432.

2. The green shamrock is supposed to represent the Holy Trinity (Father, Son, and Spirit).

People in Ireland would wear a shamrock on their lapels to show their Irish Christian faith.

3. The wearing of the shamrock led to the reason why everyone wears green on St. Patrick's Day.

Green is also a color on the Irish flag, and the color that represented several Irish revolutionary groups.

4. Technically, we should be wearing blue.

The color that was originally most associated with St. Patrick was “St. Patrick blue.”

5. The first record of St. Patrick’s Day Parade was in New York in 1762.

This “parade” consisted of a few Irish soldiers that were serving with the British walking down the street to a tavern in Manhattan.

6. Sorry, ladies, but in traditional Irish folk tales, there are no such thing as female leprechauns.


7. St. Patrick died on March 17.

So every year we are technically celebrating his death.

8. St. Patrick’s Day was a dry holiday in Ireland.

From 1903 to 1970, all pubs in Ireland were closed on March 17 for the religious holiday.

9. 33.3 million United States residents have Irish ancestry.

That is seven times the total population of Ireland.

10. St. Patrick's real name was Maewyn Succat.

He took the name Patricius, or Patrick, when he became a priest.

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This article has not been reviewed by Odyssey HQ and solely reflects the ideas and opinions of the creator.
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