Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

Much like Valentine’s Day, St. Patrick’s Day is celebrated by people of all races and religions, but was actually started hundreds of years ago from… you guessed it… a saint.

St. Patrick is probably the most widely recognized saint of Ireland. According to History.com, he held religious feasts each year on March 17, which also happens to be the day that he died.

The holiday comes during the time of Lent, a Christian tradition that lasts about 40 days and leads up to the Easter holiday. Lent represents the time that Jesus spent in the desert fighting temptations.

Oddly enough, the first St. Patrick’s Day parade (in 1762) was held in the United States. The first Irish immigrants in the U.S. were mostly Protestant until the Irish Catholics came over because of the Great Potato Famine.

It’s funny how some long standing religious traditions have become widely celebrated today by both the religious and the non-religious.

Are you doing anything to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day?