Observed for more than 1,000 years as the religious feast day of St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland, St. Patrick’s Day (March 17th) has become a popular, secular holiday in the United States and around the world, celebrated with parades, parties, and of course, the wearin’ o’ the green!

Saint Patrick was a gentleman, who through strategy and stealth
Drove all the snakes from Ireland, here’s a drink to his health!
But not too many drinks, lest we lose ourselves and then
Forget the good Saint Patrick, and see them snakes again!
—Anonymous

“LUCKY” SEVEN THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT ST. PATRICK’S DAY

1. The first recorded parade honoring St. Patrick’s Day happened on March 17, 1762 when a group of Irish soldiers who served in the British Army were stationed in the American colonies. Homesick, they held a parade on lower Broadway in New York City, and sang Irish songs and played bagpipes.
2. Since 1962, the city of Chicago dyes the Chicago River green on St. Patrick’s Day each year. The practice began when pollution-control workers, using dyes to trace illegal sewer discharges, chose a green dye because of the holiday.
3. In 1848, several Irish fraternal and beneficial societies in New York City banded together to organize a single large St. Patrick’s Day parade officially sponsored by the Ancient Order of Hibernians. Continuing to this day,  this St. Patrick’s Day parade has become the largest parade in the United States.
4. St. Patrick’s Day became a national holiday in Ireland in 1903, but did not receive much official backing until 1995, when the Irish government began promoting the holiday as a way to boost tourism. Today, over a million people take part in Dublin’s St. Patrick’s Day Festival.
5. Forget green beer – more than ten million glasses of Guinness are sold on St. Patrick’s Day around the world.
6. Why do we celebrate on March 17th? Because that’s the date of St. Patrick’s death in 461 A.D.
7. 34 million Americans have Irish ancestry – 9x the actual population of Ireland itself

Greeting Card Universe has many custom St. Patrick’s Day greeting cards to wish luck to your friends and family in finding the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow!

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