US Holidays: St. Patrick’s Day

St. Patrick’s Day in the US

St. Patrick’s Day has been celebrated in the Unites States since 1737. This long standing tradition originates from the Charitable Irish Society of Boston. This organization held the first “Paddy’s Day” parade. With that said, the first St. Patrick’s Day parade actually took place in the United States and not in Ireland! General George Washington, also the first president of the United States, acknowledged St. Patrick’s Day during the American Revolution. The winter of 1780 was a bitter and cold time for the Continental Army. Due to these harsh conditions, General Washington allowed his troops, many of whom were Irish in background, to have a holiday on March 17th.

Today, more than 100 U.S. cities hold St. Patrick’s Day parades. The parade in New York City is known for being the oldest civilian parade in the world. The first one was held in 1762 and it is the largest and most famous with around 150,000 people who march down Manhattan’s famous 5th Avenue. The parade traditionally stops at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, where the cardinal of New York blesses marchers in the parade.

Popular St. Patrick’s Day customs in the United States also include drinking beer that has been colored green, eating corned beef and cabbage, wearing shamrock pins and green clothing, and generally celebrating all things “Irish”.

Sara Collins

In Chicago, the Chicago River is dyed green. This tradition was started in 1962. As is the case in New York, there is also large parade. The 2012 parade will be the city’s 57th and each year a Chicagoan woman is crowned queen of the parade. Judges of the crowning include prominent Chicagoans of Irish heritage that consider such qualities as; grace, sincerity, beauty, poise, personality and wit.

School children have started a little tradition of their own on St. Patrick’s Day. They pinch classmates who don’t wear green on this holiday. Generally speaking, wearing green is a U.S. custom, as the color green is not as popular in Ireland. Green is connected to the old green flag and a time when Ireland was not free. Green is also a color connected with hope and nature.

About half of the U.S. presidents have had Irish ancestry. President Barack Obama also has Irish roots, which trace him back one of about 1.7 million Irish people escaping the potato famine from the 1840s to the end of the 1850s. Today *36 million Americans (about 11% of the population) claim Irish ancestry – which is almost 9 times the population of Ireland (4 million).

*2008 figure from American Community Survey by the U.S. Census