History of St. Patrick's Day

With the main focus of St. Patrick’s Day being that is the celebration feast for the patron saint of Ireland, it was actually the immigrants from Ireland to North America–particularly Boston and New York–that first propagated the annual event. It was in 1737 that the first St. Patrick’s day parade was held in Boston, Massachusetts. Following Boston was New York City’s parade in 1762. From there many traditions were created, one being that Chicago has dyed its river green since 1962. This tradition was first formed by Steven Bailey, a man who thought that he could dye the entire lake green, which would then run down the Chicago River eventually making it to the Irish Sea. Bailey saw it as a gift to Ireland, although it never truly made it there. Along with Green rivers, food, faces, clothes and even beer where representing the shamrock Emerald. The color green, in assumption with the Shamrock’s tint, became the color of St. Patrick’s Day according the Western world, even though over in Ireland it was customarily blue. While targeting tourists, Ireland adopted the color green (Britannica 2013).

Traditionally in the second half of the 19th century, St. Patrick’s Day celebrations were very minimal and there were rarely parades. If there were any parades or festivities at all, they were predominantly controlled by temperance societies, and religious groups. Seeing military men in uniform marching down the Dublin streets was not a desirable sight for the public of Ireland. The most important event for St Patrick’s Day was held for the privileged Anglo-Irish members at the Dublin Castle. In 1950, the first major attempt to revive Irelands St. Patrick’s Day celebrations (King and Sisson 2011). While revisions were made, no changes effect...

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