Green beards, green beer...maybe even green contacts — St. Paddy's day is full of drinking, fun & leprechauns, but how did St. Patrick's Day really originate? Let me tell you more about it...

Basically, an Irish kid named Patrick was kidnapped into slavery and brought to Ireland where he escaped to a monastery. Long story short, he helped spread Christianity and after his death was named a Saint. After the Irish came to America they celebrated St. Patrick's Day in order to be able to stay connected with their Irish roots. St Patrick's day is on the anniversary of Saint Patrick's death, March 17th.

So where did all the St. Paddy's day traditions come from?

Well, the shamrock (a 3 leaf clover) symbolized the Holy Trinity to the Irish.

The color (or "colour" to the Irish) green has been associated with Irish Nationalism (although it did switch to blue at some point) for centuries. From songs to flags, wearing green is a STAPLE on St Patty's day!

Beer: The Irish go hard-- so hard that around $245,000,000 is spent on beer on March 17th and 13 million glasses of Guinness!

The origin of "Kiss Me, I'm Irish": There is an old Irish legend that kissing the Blarney Stone will give you the gift of eloquent speech — if you can't kiss the stone, kiss an Irish person!

Now, as you head out to your St. Paddy's day festivities, you'll have some facts to spit out! Maybe it'll save you from getting pinched...