For many,St. Patrick's Day, which lands on Tuesday, March 17, is a time to celebrate by attending parades and partaking of food and drink associated with Ireland.
Centuries ago, some Irish feasted and drank, too, but for a more religious purpose. Christians in Ireland during roughly the ninth and 10th centuries began observing a feast day for St. Patrick duringLent, according toHistory.com. For the holiday, people could drink and dance and skip Lenten prohibitions against eating meat, feasting on Irish bacon and cabbage.
St. Patrick's Day parades, however, were thought to have originated in the United States by Irish emigrants, with the first parade being held in Boston in 1737, according to theIreland.com site, run by Tourism Ireland. But there are records of a St. Patrick's Day parade being held as early as 1601 in St. Augustine, Florida, according toHistory.com. The first parade in Ireland was held in Waterford in 1903, according to Ireland.com.
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These days, cities across the United States hold St. Patrick's Day parades andmultiday festivalsincluding parades are held throughout Ireland.
Who was Saint Patrick?
St. Patrick is remembered as the patron saint of Ireland, because he is credited with bringing Christianity to the country. (Though he is called Saint Patrick, he was never canonized, but gained the honorific through grass roots public support, according toHistory.com.)
Patrick was born in late fourth century A.D. Great Britain, but as a teen was kidnapped by Irish raiders and held captive for about six years. During his captivity he became a devout Christian. He escaped and returned to Great Britain and after an angel told him in a dream to return to Ireland as a missionary, Patrick began religious training, a course of study that lasted more than 15 years.
Patrick began his mission to bring Christianity to the island of Ireland about 432 AD, according to theSaint Patrick Centrein Downpatrick, County Down, Ireland. The Centre resides next to Down Cathedral, the legendary saint's final resting place. By his death in 461, the island was almost entirely Christian, notesHistory.com.
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Why do we celebrate St. Patrick's Day on March 17?
St. Patrick is believed to have died on March 17, around A.D. 460, according toHistory.com. March 17 became a holiday in the mid-17th century when Luke Wadding, a Franciscan friar fromWaterfordbased in Rome, added St. Patrick's Day to Rome's liturgical calendar, according to theNational Catholic Reporter.
While people in Ireland began observing the feast day to celebrate St. Patrick more than 1,000 years ago, parades began here even before the nation won its independence from Great Britain. While Boston may have held the first parade, the official New York City parade dates to March 17, 1766, according to theLibrary of Congress, although an unofficial march occurred in 1762.
In March 1776, Boston held its first official parade, while the Savannah, Georgia parade dates back to March 17, 1824, according to the library.
In addition to parades, manySt. Patrick's Day celebrationsinclude pub crawls (complete with green beer) and music festivals. In Chicago, thecity dyes the Chicago River greenas part of the celebration.
Why is the shamrock associated with St. Patrick's Day?
Supposedly, St. Patrick used the shamrock, which has three leaves, to teach the Irish about the Holy Trinity, according to Ireland.com.
Irish people in America by the numbers
Many Americans have something to celebrate this St. Patrick's Day, according to theU.S. Census Bureau:
More than 32 million U.S. residents claim Irish ancestry, according to the U.S. Census.
About 117,000 U.S. residents were born in Ireland.
States with the highest percentage of residents with Irish ancestry are New Hampshire (21.3%) and Massachusetts (18.9%).
Cook County, Illinois, which includes Chicago, has about 434,000 Irish-Americans, the U.S. county with the most, according to 2023 data.
Contributing: Kinsey Crowley
Mike Snider is a national trending news reporter for USA TODAY. You can follow him on Threads, Bluesky, X and email him atmikegsnider&@mikegsnider.bsky.social&@mikesnider& msnider@usatoday.com.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:St. Patrick's Day 2026 is Tuesday. Why do we celebrate Irish culture?
