St. Patrick’s day is upon us and the typical Paddy’s day tropes are out and about with green beer, leprechaun costumes and shamrock decorations. We know that it was inspired by St. Patrick, but what don’t we know about St. Paddy’s day?
Saint Patrick wasn’t Irish. According to scholars, St. Patrick lived in Roman controlled Britain, in either Scotland or Wales.
St. Patrick’s day was originally a dry holiday in Ireland until 1970, due to it’s observance as a religious holiday.
UD has a reputation as the college that hosts the best St. Patrick’s day party in the nation. The riot two years ago wasn’t the first of its kind on the holiday in the UD area. According to Dayton Daily News, in the early 90’s, students were just as rowdy as they are now. It was so bad, that UD administration scheduled their spring breaks from 1994-1998 so students wouldn’t be on campus for the holiday.March 17, 2014 is also Holi, an ancient Hindu spring festival known as the festival of colors.
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St. Patrick’s was once associated with the color blue rather than green. In the 1790’s green became the token color of Irish nationalists and it’s association with St. Patrick grew from there.
