Saint Patrick's Day 2021 Celebrations History

Saint Patrick's Day

St Patrick's Day is celebrated in Northern Ireland on 17 March and it is also known as St Patrick's Festival. In 2018, the day of this patron saint will be celebrated on Monday 19 March. 

Saint Patrick is Ireland's most famous patron saint. He lived in the fourth and fifth centuries and came from a wealthy Romano-British family living in England.

Even after six years, he escaped and came back to his home. Several years later, Patrick followed a call on his life to preaching in Ireland and is believed to have died here on 17 March 461. However, there are many variations in his death and date of birth. At birth, he was named Mevyan Sukkat.

For example, there are many legends about Saint Patrick, most notably, that he drove out all the snakes from Ireland. This is not possible because there were probably no snakes in Ireland before Patrick arrived there. Some people believe that the mention of 'snake' is actually in the context of capitalist or druids.

Today, St. Patrick's Day is a religious day where many people attend church services. Others celebrate Irish culture with parades and parties around the world. In Dublin, this festival lasts for several days. And includes tours following Patrick's footsteps, and street demonstrations, and Irish craft beer villages.

The symbol of St. Patrick's Day is shadowing, a type of three-leaf clover. Some of the traditional foods eaten on St. Patrick's Day include soda bread, cabbage, buttered beef, Irish stew, colcannon potatoes, green beer, and pot-o-gold (a chocolate dessert). Many legends exist about Patrick.

The year	date	day	The holiday	country
	17 March	Saturday	Patrick's Day	Northern Ireland
2018
	19 March	Monday	Patrick's day off	Northern Ireland
	17 March	Sunday	Patrick's Day	Northern Ireland
2019
2021	18 March 17 March	Monday Wednesday	Patrick's day off Patrick's day	Northern Ireland

Saint Patrick depicted in a stained glass window at Saint Benin's Church, Ireland

Official nameSaint Patrick's Day

• Also called fast of Saint Patrick
• Lá Fheile Pádraig
• Patrick's Day
• (St) Paddy's Day
• (St) Patty's Day

• Observed by Irish people and people of Irish descent
• Catholic Church (see calendar)
• Anglican Communion (see calendars)
• Eastern Orthodox Church (see calendar)
• Lutheran Church (see calendar)

TypeEthnic, national, Christian

SignificanceFeast day of Saint Patrick,

commemoration of the arrival of Christianity in Ireland

• CelebrationsAttending parades
• attending céilithe
• wearing shamrocks
• wearing green
• drinking Irish beer
• drinking Irish whiskey

ObservancesAttending mass or service

Date17 March

Next time17 March 2019 (2019-03-17)

FrequencyAnnual