Good question, I’m glad you asked.
To set the record straight, St Patrick’s Day is actually a religious holiday. It’s not like the commemoration of the colour green, or a plot to out shitty boyfriends like St Valentine’s Day, it’s actually legit. So, just like Christmas and Easter, it is perfectly acceptable to get drunk.
And on this day (March 17), Christianity arrived in Ireland and St Patrick also died. It must have gone something like this…
St Pat: “I’m St Patrick and I love Christianity and I think you guys (Ireland) should get on it.”
Irish: “Mmmm we dunno, you’re a good guy Patty, but what are the pros and cons? We don’t like to commit straight away.”
St Pat: “Come on, it will be like One Direction for the AD.”
Irish: “Yeah okay.”
Feels like you were there, doesn’t it?
St Patrick was also all about the shamrocks (i.e. clovers) because the three leaves were the same as the three points of the holy trinity (awwww) and hence all the fuss about the colour green. Fun fact: originally all the fuss was about the colour blue but then yeah, nah, shamrocks are green.
The deal with the excessive drinking is because during the original St Patrick’s Day festivities, the eating and drinking rules of lent were lifted for the day so everyone could get amongst it. And 40 days and 40 nights of no vices and lots of rules makes for some very thirsty people. Don’t believe me? Go and watch the Josh Hartnett movie 40 Days and 40 Nights and see how parched that poor guy is.
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