St.Patrick's Day History and TraditionsThis holidayis celebrated every year on March 17th, honoring the Irish patron saint, St.Patrick. The celebrations are largely Irish culture themed and typicallyconsist of wearing green, parades, and drinking. Some churches may holdreligious services and many schools and offices close in Suffolk County, thearea containing Boston and its suburbs.People allover the world celebrate St. Patrick's Day, especially places with largeIrish-American communities. Feasting on the day features traditional Irish food,including corned beef, corned cabbage, coffee, soda bread, potatoes, andshepherd's pie. Many celebrations also hold an Irish breakfast of sausage,black and white pudding, fried eggs, and fried tomatoes. Common traditions include: Parades - This event ismost often associated with the holiday. Cities that hold large parades includeBoston, New York, Philadelphia, New Orleans, Savannah, and other citiesworldwide. Drinking - Since manyCatholics are Irish-American, some may be required to fast from drinking duringLent. However, they are allowed to break this fast during the St. Patrick's Daycelebrations. This is one cause for the day's association with drinkingheavily. Dying water or beer green -Chicago dies its river green for the festivities, and many bars servegreen-dyed beer. The White House fountain is also dyedgreen. Other incorporations ofgreen - In Seattle, the parade routes are painted in green. Observers aresupposed to wear green or else risk being pinched. Parade floats and decorations willfeature the color green. Religious services - Thosewho celebrate the holiday in a religious context may also hold a feast. Outsideof this context, overindulgence tends to revolve around drinking. Pea planting - In theNortheast, many celebrate by planting peas. This is largely due to the colorand time of year (prime pea-planting conditions.Saint Patrick- The Missionary and Bishop of IrelandSt. Patrick,or the "Apostle of Ireland," actually started out in the paganreligion. While not much is known about his early life, as many of his life'sdetails were lost to folklore, letters from St. Patrick reveal that he wascaptured in Wales, Scotland, or another close area outside of Ireland and takento Ireland as a slave. Years later, he escaped and returned to his family, whowere Romans living in Britain, going back to Ireland for mission work afterfinding a place as a cleric and then Bishop within the Christian faith. He wasborn around 460, and by the 600s, he was already known as the Patron Saint ofIreland.There aremany legends associated with St. Patrick. The symbol of the shamrock used forSt. Patrick's Day comes from the story of St. Patrick using the shamrock toillustrate the Holy Trinity. The three-leafed plant coincided with the Paganreligion's sanctity of the number three and is the root of the green colortheme.Anotherpopular belief is that St. Patrick banished the snakes from Ireland. The storysays that while St. Patrick was fasting, snakes attacked him, so he chased allsnakes into the ocean. However, there have never been snakes in Ireland duringthe post-glacial period. The absence of snakes and symbolism involved withsnakes is believed to explain the story, although it could have been referringto type of worm rather than snakes. One legend has St. Patrick sticking awalking stick into the ground while evangelizing, which turned into a