To those of you who are still on your feet, Happy St. Patrick’s Day! God help you if you are anywhere in Manhattan…and if you are not, heed Shane McGowan’s advice and get to where streams of whiskey are flowin’:
All you need to know about the holiday
It is on this day that we pay commemorative tribute to the saint who imported Christianity to the Emerald Isle. Legend has it that St. Patrick was inspired to become a priest after divine Providence effected his escape from the hands of Irish raiders as a boy. Interpreting his fortuitous repatriation to Britain as a sign from God, Patrick took to the cloth and eventually returned to Ireland to spread the Catholic faith, despite the traumatic encounters of his youth. Real talk.
In any case, St. Patrick’s Day is an officially recognized public holiday in the Republic Ireland and its Northern counterpart, Newfoundland and Labrador, and this one’s the kicker…the Caribbean island of Montserrat!
Chew on these other fun facts:
– The color originally associated with St. Patty’s was actually blue.
The color of a leprechaun with leprosy...
– During his early missionary campaigns, St. Patrick supposedly used a shamrock to illustrate Trinitarian doctrine.
– The Irish Taoiseach, or prime minister, traditionally makes a trip across the pond to visit the White House and present the president with, er, a “bowl” of shamrocks. This year, Obama and Irish PM Edna Kenny appear to have opted to stick with the subtler element of the tradition—accenting their breast pockets with tufts of shamrock—but you can scope a sweet pic of Bill Clinton gettin’ down with a fat green bowl here.
– If you don’t wear green, you incur the risk of a friendly but inevitably skeezy pinch from…this dude:
– Shamrocks taste bad.
– Jameson does not (provided you’re over 21!)