By Georgie Hewson, ABC
St Patrick's day is celebrated all around with world with parades, shamrocks and plenty of Guinness. Photo: WILLIAM WEST
If you've been seeing a lot of green decorating shops and venues around you this week, you're not seeing things - It's St Patrick's Day.
The annual occasion is celebrated all around with world with parades, shamrocks and plenty of Guinness.
Here's what you need to know about the day and the saint that it celebrates.
When is St Patrick's Day?
Monday, March 17.
What is St Patrick's Day?
St Patrick's Day is a religious holiday that celebrates the life of Ireland's patron saint, St Patrick.
It is believed to be the day that St Patrick died in the 5th century.
In Ireland, every St Patrick's Day, communities from Belfast to Cork on this national holiday celebrate the patron saint of Ireland through a range of events.
It has also become a global celebration of Irish culture and heritage.
The mid-1800s saw a wave of people leaving Ireland - due to the potato famine and resultant political unrest - to relocate in places such as the US and Australia, bolstering the celebrations even further.
It isn't a public holiday here in Australia but the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland, the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador (for provincial government employees), and the British Overseas Territory of Montserrat all get a day off school and work.
Who is St Patrick?
St Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland, is one of Christianity's most widely known figures.
But, fun fact - he wasn't even Irish.
St Patrick was most likely born in Britain, near the southern border between modern Wales and England.
While exact dates vary, most historians agree that St Patrick was born between the late 300s and the mid-400s.
He was credited with bringing Christianity to Ireland in the 5th century.
He's known, primarily, from his two written works:
- Confessio, which is a spiritual autobiography
- Letter to Coroticus, which is a denunciation of the British mistreatment of the Irish.
There are also several other stories about the patron saint which are proven false by historians.
One of the most famous tales is that he drove out all snakes from Ireland.
"At no time has there ever been any suggestion of snakes in Ireland, so [there was] nothing for St Patrick to banish," the National Museum of Ireland's Nigel Monaghan told the National Geographic in 2018.
Why is St Patrick's Day associated with green?
The colour green is now synonymous with St Patrick's Day and Irish pride.
But it wasn't always this way.
Until the 19th century, the colour associated with St Patrick was actually blue.
- ABC
