Saint Patrick's Day
Do the preparation task first. Then read the article and do the exercises.
Preparation
In the 1971 film The Flight of the Doves, an Irish policeman lifts up a little English girl so that she can see the nearby parade for Saint Patrick's Day. He tells her, 'It's a great day for the Irish.' The little girl exclaims, 'I'm not Irish!', to which the policeman replies, 'You don't have to be Irish to be Irish!' Saint Patrick's Day is the national day of Ireland. Every 17 March, the day is celebrated around the globe by millions of people, Irish and not-so-Irish.
Patrick, the man
Did you know that Saint Patrick himself was not actually Irish? It is thought that he was either Scottish or Welsh, coming from a wealthy Christian family. Ancient documents suggest that, as a teenager, he was taken by Irish pirates to work as a slave in Ireland. Once in his new country, he began to talk to Irish people about God, introducing his Christian beliefs to the country.
Patrick and the snakes
Old legends say that, years ago, Ireland had a lot of snakes and that Saint Patrick used his powers to chase them all into the sea. To this day, Ireland has many old statues of Saint Patrick, often with snakes at his feet. Apparently, this is why Ireland has no native species of snakes (though most scientists suggest that this fact could be more related to geographical reasons!).
International popularity
March 17 is a day for huge celebrations in Ireland. However, due to Ireland's history of emigration, many people around the world consider themselves to be partly Irish because of their ancestral connections. This means that Saint Patrick's Day parties take place around the world, from Boston to Tokyo, Sydney to Buenos Aires. In fact, Saint Patrick's Day is celebrated in more countries than any other national festival.
Big parades
The most famous celebrations on Saint Patrick's Day are the parades. These are carnival-like events, where people dress up and walk along the street, dancing or playing music. Often the parades include big lorries, specially decorated in green. Many of the world's major cities have enormous parades. The largest is in New York, where 150,000 people participate in the parade and millions of people watch. The second largest is in Dublin, Ireland's capital city.
More 'modest' parades
Ireland itself is a relatively small country with few cities. However, most of its towns and villages have their own 'mini' parades. Sometimes, these simply include a few tractors and the children from the local school. The shortest known parade used to take place in the village of Dripsey, in southern Ireland. The length of the parade was just 23 metres, between the village's two pubs. However, the Dripsey parade came to an end when one of the two pubs sadly closed down!
A day for green
Another well-known aspect of Saint Patrick's Day is the colour green. Around the world, many people wear green clothes as a way of marking the day. In major cities, green lights illuminate famous global landmarks such as the Colosseum in Rome or the Christ The Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro. In Chicago, thousands of people watch as special boats dye the river a bright green colour. Students at Miami University in Ohio, USA, even have a 70-year-old tradition of drinking special green 'Saint Patrick's' beer!
Wherever you're from, make sure you celebrate this 17 March by watching your local parade, drinking some Irish beer or perhaps just by wearing a silly green hat. And don't forget to wish your friends a wonderful Saint Patrick's Day, or, as they say in Ireland, 'Happy Paddy's Day!'
Hello everyone, I know this celebration and thanks to this article, I have learned the reason behind this beautiful tradition. By the way, in Mexico we do not celebrate it because it is not part of our culture. However, you can find pubs that celebrate it that night.
In contrast to this tradition, we have a similar one that consists of remembering our independence from Spain. The official day is on 27 September, when The Trigarante Army made their triumphant entrance into Mexico City. However, we celebrate this event every September 16 due to the fact that 204 years ago, the war started with a call to arms known as the 'Grito De Dolores'. A priest gathered the people by ringing the church's bells to tell a war inciting speech.
Nowadays, every president of Mexico does a similar representation screaming 'Viva Mexico!'. In summary, we celebrate this day by eating our traditional food (tacos, tortas, quesadillas, and more), watching parades, and dancing. It is our REAL '5 DE MAYO' (May 5th).
My sister-in-law calls Patricia, so we celebrate a party this day, specially having a glass of Ginnes
Honestly, I've just learned the details about Saint Patrick's Day from this article and am really thankful for gaining knowledge. Before this, I had seen carnival-like events just in the movies, and I didn't know what they represented. So, in our nation, Myanmar, we have never celebrated this day. Our National Independence Day is on 4th January, the day we had gained freedom from the colony of Great Britain in 1948. On that day, we usually celebrate flag-raising and saluting ceremonies and parades in different parts of our country.
We are from Spain and we have never celebrated Saint patrick's day, but after looking for information, we are so excited to go to ireland to expirience it by ourselves. LOVE IRELAND!!!
We don't celebrate Saint Patrick's Day in my country. However, recently they have started to have some events going on more for young people. This includes going to a pub or a club. On the other hand our national day is celebrate on June 2. It's known as Republic day which represent that our country became a Republic after many years being sovereign by the Savoy's family. It's a national holiday mostly celebrate in the capital with a big ceremony at the main landmark and a air show by the airforce.
I've never celebrated Saint Patrick's Day. I'm from Mexico, so this day is not very special for most people in my country. But I've seen this celebration in many movies, and I have to say it looks beautiful, streets covered in green and the classic green hats. I hope to visit this country one day and celebrate this tradition.
Hello everyone. I`m from Ukraine and we have never celebrated St. Patrick's Day. I always wondered what this celebration is and why it is so popular in other countries. Glad I have obtained information from this article
My name is Anyeline Muñoz I am from Colombia and we celebrate Saint Patrick's the 17th of March.
Hello Anyeline,
Welcome! We ask everyone to write comments in English on our website. Since I know Spanish, I translated your first comment for you.
But from now on, please write in English. It's OK to make mistakes, this is a friendly place for anyone learning English!
Best wishes,
Kirk
LearnEnglish Team
Enjoyed reading about this special day. It's great that people celebrate this day with so much energy and enthusiasm. We should always look for reasons to celebrate our life and stay as happy as we can. Eventually, our happiness lies in our own hands.