St. Patrick’s Day is only about a hundred years old, and it didn’t actually originate in Ireland.
It came from ye old Emerald Island, Manhattan in New York City, at the beginning of the 20th century, when Irish immigrants to New York’s Lower East Side adopted corned beef from their Jewish neighbors.
Another tradition that came from the New World, not Ireland, is the drunken revelry of the St. Patrick’s Day parade.
Back in Ireland, St. Patrick’s Day had been a religious holiday meant for quiet reflection and church, in fact, pubs in Ireland were closed on St. Patrick’s Day until the 1970s, but Irish Americans decided it was an occasion to show off their numbers and political clout by marching through big cities.
Eventually, the Ireland Irish followed suit.
Still another Irish tradition that came from America, not Ireland, is that of the friendly, mischievous leprechaun. Even though the legend of leprechauns existed back in Ireland, the little green guys were a nasty race you wouldn’t want to meet up with.
But Disney and Lucky Charms cereal helped put an end to that image.
Chicago started dyeing its river green on St. Patrick’s Day in 1962. It’s vegetable dye, believed to be harmless.
Related Posts
-
Why do Sliced Roast Beef, Corned Beef and Pastrami Meat have a Rainbow Sheen?
There's nothing better than a New York, style, kosher, thin-sliced, fat-laden corned beef sandwich on rye. But the diet pendulum has a habit of swinging back and forth, so depending on whether it's…
-
Where does the word “cabbage” come from and What does cabbage mean?
The ordinary cabbage which grows in the garden fittingly comes from the Old French word caboche, meaning a head, derived from the Latin caput, a head. But we use cabbage also when we…
-
How Did the Custom of Serving Turkey For Christmas Dinner Originate and When Did the Tradition Start?
Up until the nineteenth century, mincemeat pie was the common Christmas feast in both North America and Europe, with preferred birds being pigeon, peacock, guinea hen, and goose. Turkey was introduced from America…
-
How Did the Tradition of Serving a Wedding Cake At a Wedding Reception Originate and What Does it Symbolize?
Most wedding rituals are to encourage fertility, and so it is with the wedding cake. The tradition began in the Roman Empire with the Romans breaking small cakes of wheat and barley over…
-
Who first discovered that cabbage could be eaten as food?
Cabbage, that smooth and crunchy source of vitamin C, seems to have been with us since time began. Evidence of its use dates back to more than 4,000 years ago in China. Ancient…
-
Did the slang term for a prostitute “hooker” originate with soldiers serving under the Civil War general Joseph Hooker?
No, the slang term for a prostitute "hooker" did not originate with soldiers serving under the Civil War general Joseph Hooker. The term was already in use in 1845, two decades before the…
