Although Saint Patrick’s Day has the color green as its theme, one little known fact is that blue was once the color associated with this day. The original color of St. Patrick’s Day was not green, but blue. It wasn’t until the 19th century that green became Ireland’s national color and eventually the color of St. Patrick’s Day because of its association with the shamrock, springtime and the Emerald Isle.
Saint Patrick’s Day, colloquially St. Paddy’s Day or Paddy’s Day, is the feast day which annually celebrates Saint Patrick (385–461), one of the patron saints of Ireland, on March 17, the day on which Saint Patrick died. The day is the national holiday of the Irish people. It is a Bank Holiday in Northern Ireland, and a public holiday in the Republic of Ireland, Montserrat, and the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. In the rest of Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States, it is widely celebrated but is not an official holiday.
Saint Patrick’s Day is celebrated worldwide by Irish people and increasingly by many of non-Irish descent (usually in Australia, North America, and Ireland), hence the phrase, „Everyone wants to be Irish on St. Patrick’s Day.” Celebrations are generally themed around all things green and Irish; both Christians and non-Christians celebrate the secular version of the holiday by wearing green, eating Irish food and/or green foods, imbibing Irish drink, and attending parades.