Strange But True Facts About St. Patrick's Day

1. Scholars say the patron saint's name was actually NOT Patrick, but Maewyn Succat.

2. The first St Patrick's Day parade was in Boston, MA in 1737, not Ireland.

3. The St Patrick's color is actually BLUE not GREEN.  It "became" green in the 1800s because of Irish legends the color green was favored by immortals.

4. For St Patrick's Day, rivers in Chicago, and Tampa Bay are dyed green, and Seattle paints green lines down roads.

5. An Irish Tradition on St. Patrick's Day is "drowning the shamrock," by floating a shamrock on top of a whiskey before drinking it.

6. Around the world, one percent of the total beer consumption occurs on St. Patrick's Day, including 13 million pints of Guinness.

7. Each leaf on a four leaf clover represents something: Hope, Faith, Love and Luck.

8. St Patrick's Day is an AMERICAN tradition, but a few decades ago, Ireland began having St Patrick's celebrations, too.

9. Green beer is safe to drink. It gets the color from food coloring.

10. An St Patrick's day tradition is Irish Potato Candies, made with cinnamon, coconut, and cream to cheese pay homage to the devastating Great Hunger from 1845 to 1852 that left more than one million dead.

11. St Patrick died in Ireland on March 17th, but the year is uncertain, between 460 and 493 AD. His jawbone was preserved in a silver shrine. It was believed it could ward off the "evil eye" and epileptic seizures.

12. There is no evidence snakes EVER existed in Ireland, so it's unclear whether St. Patrick drove them out...

13. St Patrick's was traditionally a DRY holiday in Ireland until 1970! From 1903 to 1970 it was considered a religious holiday and the pubs were CLOSED.

14. Your odds of finding a four leaf clover are  1 in 10,000.

15. There are more Irish in America than Ireland.  There are 34 million Americans which claikm Irish descent or are pure blooded Irish, while only 4.2 million residents of Ireland.

16. The shamrock is NOT the symbol of Ireland.  The main symbol of Ireland throughout history has been the harp.

17. St. Patrick used the shamrock as a symbol when preaching about the holy trinity.

18.  St. Patrick wasn't Irish at all. He was born in what is now England, and at age 16 was captured by Irish raiders who sold him as a slave. At the age of 22 he escaped and made his way to an English monastery to study and get closer to God.

19. St Patrick is celebrated on March 17th because that was the day he died. March 17th, 461 AD.