Here's a few fun factoids for St. Patrick's Day (blatantly stolen from the History Channel web site).
St. Patrick's Day is celebrated on March 17, his religious feast day and the anniversary of his death in the fifth century. The Irish have observed this day as a religious holiday for thousands of years.
The first St. Patrick's Day parade took place not in Ireland, but in the United States.
It has long been recounted that, during his mission in Ireland, St. Patrick once stood on a hilltop (which is now called Croagh Patrick), and with only a wooden staff by his side, banished all the snakes from Ireland.
In fact, the island nation was never home to any snakes. The "banishing of the snakes" was really a metaphor for the eradication of pagan ideology from Ireland and the triumph of Christianity.
In Celtic folktales, leprechauns were cranky souls, responsible for mending the shoes of the other fairies.
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