millions of people around the world on
their best green attire every March 17th
to celebrate Saint Patrick's Day but
there is a lot we bet you didn't know
about Ireland's patron saints to start
with Saint Patrick wasn't even Irish he
was born around the fifth century in
Brittany
then part of the Roman Empire at sixteen
he was kidnapped by Irish Raiders and
spent six years in captivity he
converted to Christianity and later
returned to Ireland to spend the rest of
his life working as a Christian
missionary after Patrick died on March
17 461 he was largely forgotten until
mythology and legend grew and centuries
later he was honored as the patron saint
of Ireland according to one famous myth
Patrick drove all the snakes from
Ireland the story symbolized Patrick
cleansing the island of paganism there's
just one problem
Ireland never had any snakes to begin
with the Emerald Isle is surrounded by
water two frigid for snakes to migrate
their weather from Britain or anywhere
else according to another famous story
Patrick used the three leaves of the
Shamrock to explain the Holy Trinity as
a result people in 18th century Ireland
started wearing shamrocks on March 17 to
signify their Irish Christian pride that
tradition later grew into wearing green
clothing a popular Saint Patrick's Day
custom today those shamrocks don't
really exist we know them as any one of
several three leap plants such as wood
sorrel or white and yellow clover as
important as st. Patrick is to Irish
history we bet you didn't know the
tradition of celebrating March 17th with
parades actually started in America the
parade tradition really took off after
the great potato famine hit Ireland in
the 1840s sending hundreds of thousands
of Irish immigrants pouring into New
York the boss
and other American cities the first
record of a st. Patrick's Day parade in
New York dates to 1762 when a group of
Irish soldiers serving with the British
marched a few blocks to a tavern in
lower Manhattan today it's the largest
and longest st. Patrick's Day parade
boasting close to 200,000 participants
and nearly 3 million spectators each
year so this March 17 we hope we'll be
wearing green and toasting to some st.
Patrick's Day history that we bet you
didn't know
you