St. Patrick's Day!

Yesterday was St. Patrick's Day and every where I went I saw people in green (including myself). Many people also celebrated the day by going to the parade and watching the floats while snacking on the candy that was being thrown out to them.  But why do we celebrate St. Patrick's day, when did it start?

    Saint Patrick was born in the 15th century and actually isn't Irish.  He was born in Roman Britain and was kidnapped and became a slave in Ireland when he was 16 years old.  He did later escape, but he also returned to Ireland later in his life.  Saint Patrick has been honored in Ireland with a feast on March 17th, but the Irish were not the first people to hold a parade in honor of St. Patrick.  Americans were.  On March 17, 1762 Irish soldier marched through New York City with music and helped the soldiers reconnect with their Irish heritage.

    in 1848 a bunch of new York Irish Aid Societies decided to join together to form one large parade on St. Patrick's day. That parade is the worlds largest civilian parade today and is also the largest in the United States.  The parade takes more than 5 hours!
    St. Patrick's Day is celebrated in all different ways.  In Chicago they turn the river green with green vegetable-dye and it stays green for several hours.  In Ireland, St. Patrick's day was originally a religious holiday and until 1995 pubs would be closed on that day. Beginning in 19995 though, they started using St. Patrick's Day to increase tourism and to show Irish culture to the rest of the world.

Information from:
http://www.history.com/topics/st-patricks-day

Picture from:
http://www.fanpop.com/spots/saint-patricks-day/images/13177257/title/happy-st-patricks-day-photo