Happy St. Patricks Day!

St. Patrick’s Day brings to mind green, treasure, leprachauns, lucky charms, four-leaf clovers, and perhaps corned beef and cabbage? Here are some random facts about the Holiday.

• March 17 in 461 AD St. Patrick, Patron Saint of the Irish, is believed to have died. This is why we celebrate March 17.
• St. Patrick’s Day is a national holiday for Ireland and a provincial holiday in Newfoundland and Labrador.
• Dublin, Ireland has a huge festival from March 15-19 to celebrate.
• The Chicago River, in Chicago, IL is dyed green on St. Patrick’s Day.
• Boston, MA has had a St. Patrick’s Day parade since 1737.
• In Ireland people traditionally wear bunches of shamrocks on their jackets or hats, women and girls wear green ribbons in their hair and children wear orange, white, and green badges.
• According to the 2003 Census 34 million Americans have Irish Ancestry – that is about nine times the population of Ireland.
• Towns in the United States with Irish names; Mount Gay-Shamrock, WV, Shamrock Lakes, IN, Shamrock, OK, Shamrock, TX, Dublin, CA and Dublin, OH.
• The Guiness Book of World Records for most leaves on a clover is 14.
• It is estimated that there are 10,000 three-leaf clovers for every lucky four-leaf clover.
• The legend is that the first leaf of a clover is for hope, the second is for faith, the third for love, and the fourth is for luck.

Wishing  you a lucky St. Patrick’s Day!