7 Ways We Celebrate St. Patrick’s Day

Posted by Superberries Team on 3/17/2022 to Lifestyle

Superberries Blog Celebrating St. Patrick's Day

St. Patrick’s Day is a holiday well-known for green beer, corned beef, cabbage, and celebrating your Irishness, whether you can actually claim any or not. Though the Superberries Team is partial to purple, we love the wearing of green on St. Patrick’s Day and everything else that comes with the holiday. If you are planning to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day this year, here are 7 ways to have fun.

1. Celebrating St. Patrick

 If you are religious, you can celebrate St. Patrick by attending a religious service held in his honor. St. Patrick’s Day was made an official Christian feast day in the 1600s and is observed by the Catholic, Anglican, Eastern Orthodox, and Lutheran Churches. Originally the intention was to commemorate St. Patrick bringing Christianity to Ireland, but it has grown also into a celebration of Irish heritage and culture.

2. Wearing of the Green

Even though historically the color of Ireland and St. Patrick is actually azure blue, it is tradition to wear green on St. Patrick’s Day. Tradition holds that if you wear green, leprechauns won’t see you and they won’t be able to pinch you. That is where the tradition of pinching people who do not wear green arose. Now that the color green has become associated with Ireland generally, many people wear it to celebrate their Irish heritage.

3. Decorate with Shamrocks  

Some people say that St. Patrick used the trefoil shamrock to explain the Holy Trinity to the people of Ireland, but there is no evidence that is historically accurate. Historians believe that Irish citizens wore the bright green plant on their clothes to St. Patrick’s Day celebrations when they couldn’t afford other adornments. To the Irish, it symbolizes the rebirth of spring. Irish immigrants brought the symbol with them to the U.S.

4. Eat Traditional Irish Foods

Eat corned beef and cabbage and Irish soda bread. Corned beef is actually an Irish-American delicacy because Irish immigrants were able to buy it from kosher butchers when they first moved to large American cities and soda bread actually originated with indigenous North Americans but became popular in Ireland after immigrants brought it back. In Ireland, you are more likely to find people celebrating by eating lamb or bacon, colcannon, and shepherd’s pie. No matter what people eat, though, many of them are likely to wash it down with something green.

5. Drink & Be Merry

Though many people drink cheap beer dyed green on St. Patrick’s Day, other people choose a variety of alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages. Guinness claims that about 3 million pints of their beer are consumed on St. Patty’s Day, more than three times more than on an average day. Some people choose to celebrate with Irish whiskey or non-alcoholic beverages such as St. Patrick’s Day punch or shamrock shakes.

6. Learn Irish Dancing at Home

Many people around the world attend ceílís on St. Patrick’s Day. A ceílí is a party at which an Irish band plays traditional music and people dance specific types of traditional Irish dances. If there is no traditional ceílí in your area or if you’re choosing to stay home this year, you can learn Irish dancing using online tutorials and have your own mini-ceílí at home.

7. Listen to Irish Music  

Music has always been an important part of Irish culture, and many bars and venues host Irish bands on St. Patrick’s Day. If you’re not able to catch an in-person set, check out online quarantine concerts from famous groups such as Flogging Molly or Dropkick Murphys. Many Irish bands will be providing online entertainment on March 17, so you will have plenty of choices.

Whether your family has Irish heritage or not, St. Patrick’s Day is a good day to mark the beginning of spring and the end of winter. This year, we can all use a little frivolity and fun, so put on your green and enjoy the day.