Saint Patrick's Day, although a legal holiday only in Savannah, Georgia,Monaco, Rachael (March 10, 2013). "Second oldest St. Patrick's Day parade in United States hosted by Philadelphians." Examiner. Denver, CO: Clarity Digital Group, LLC. and Suffolk County, Massachusetts,With a signature in green, St. Patrick's Day became a holiday, 90.9 WBUR, Boston, MA: WBUR, 12 March 2010, Retrieved 15 March 2014. is nonetheless widely recognized and celebrated throughout the United States. It is primarily celebrated as a recognition of Irish and Irish American culture; celebrations include prominent displays of the color green, eating and drinking, religious observances, and numerous parades. The holiday has been celebrated in what became the U.S. since 1601.
According to the National Retail Federation, consumers in the United States spent $4.4 billion on St. Patrick's Day in 2016. This amount is down from the $4.8 billion spent in 2014.
Early celebrations The first recorded St Patrick's Day celebration in America was in St. Augustine, Spanish Florida, in the year 1600 according to Michael Franicis's 2017 research. Franicis discovered the first St. Patrick Day Parade was also in St. Augustine in 1601. Both were organized by the Spanish Colony's Catholic Irish vicar Ricardo Artur (Richard Arthur).
The Charitable Irish Society of Boston organized the first observance of Saint Patrick's Day in the Thirteen Colonies in 1737. Surprisingly, the celebration was not Catholic in nature, Irish immigration to the colonies having been dominated by Protestants. The society's purpose in gathering was simply to honor its homeland, and although they continued to meet annually to coordinate charitable works for the Irish community in Boston, they did not meet on 16 March again until 1794. During the observance of the day, individuals attended a service of worship and a special dinner.
New York's first Saint Patrick's Day observance was similar to that of Boston. It was held on 16 March 1762 in the home of John Marshall, an Irish Protestant, and over the next few years informal gatherings by Irish immigrants were the norm. The first recorded parade in New York was by Irish soldiers in the British Army in 1766. The first documented St. Patrick's Day Celebration in Philadelphia was held in 1771. Philadelphia's Friendly Sons of St. Patrick was founded in that year to honor St. Patrick and to provide relief to Irish immigrants in the city. Irish Americans have celebrated St. Patrick's Day in Philadelphia since their arrival in America. General George Washington, a member of Philadelphia's Friendly Sons of St. Patrick, actively encouraged Irish American patriots to join the Continental Army. In 1780, while camped in Morristown, NJ, General Washington allowed his troops a holiday on 17 March "as an act of solidarity with the Irish in their fight for independence."The original proclamation is available from the Library of Congress: page 1 – page 2 This event became known as The Saint Patrick's Day Encampment of 1780."Saint Patrick's Day". Encarta . Retrieved 17 March 2006.
Irish patriotism in New York City continued to soar, and the parade in New York City continued to grow. Irish aid societies like Friendly Sons of Saint Patrick and the Hibernian Society were created and marched in the parades. Finally when many of these aid societies joined forces in 1848, the parade became not only the largest parade in the United States but one of the largest in the world.
The City of Savannah, Georgia, has hosted Saint Patrick's Day celebrations since 1824. It boasts a celebration rivaling that of New York City in size and fervor. Unlike any other cities, Savannah's historic parade is always held on March 17, not on the neighboring weekend. Festivities begin more than a week in advance with communal rituals and commemorative ceremonies, such as the St. Patrick's Parade. Such events were, in fact, the main factors in shaping Irish-American identity as recognized today. In fact, leading up to the 1870s, Irish-American identity in the United States was reworked through the shifting character of the Saint Patrick's Day rituals and features under three separate occasions: Initially, in 1853 when it undertook a "spiritual rhetoric" notion, then when it became known as a "reformulated memory of an Irish past couched in terms of vengeance against Britain" to, finally, adopting a "sectarian catholic nationalism" attitude in the 1870s and 1880s.
In fact, ceremonies represent the very "junctures at which processes of identity formation surface through representation," which implies that ritual practices represent the molding tools people turn to in order to build a national identity. Furthermore, incorporating "the analysis of commemorative rituals" becomes a valuable element "in the context of broader historical studies" as such analysis reveals much about the collective conscience of the Irish-American community.
There is a clear gradual shift toward a nationalist attitude in the Irish-American Diaspora which can be detected in the prose of Doheny's commemorative speech in 1853, but the "complete ascendency to a nationalist [approach] in Irish identity" truly came in the 1870s and 1880s. More important, there were already numerous evidences of a national identity present in the Irish Catholic labouring classes prior to the settlement of an Irish-Catholic community in America. Despite the longing memory of a loved lost Ireland, the main factor that contributed to creating a clear "sense of group unity" in the Irish-American community really came with the hatred sentiments that were felt towards "British oppression and resistance".
Furthermore, there is a turnover in perspectives towards the causes of the Great famine in the mind of the Irish-American that can be traced: One that varies from a "mourning religious view", seen in Archbishop Hughes' sermon, to a perspective that shifts the blame towards the British monarchy for its indifference and greed, seen in Cahill's speech in 1860. From that point on, all the following commemorative speeches on the Saint Patrick's Day invoked nationalist themes such as "British hatred" and "heroic struggle" and led the way for the creation of a "new parade" which gained in adherents and absorbed "elements of American patriotism and full-fledged nationalism". The result was such that the Irish-American community came to regard itself in the 1870s as a community that defined itself by dual loyalties on one hand, and in another as "a unified common organism," which gathered in strength on the basis that they had a common past, "not a religious one but one that centered on the common Irish experience of British oppression and suffering". In other words, this goes to show that the shifting character of commemorative rituals experienced during the Saint Patrick's parade have influenced the development of American culture in a larger sense, since it contributed to enriching its heritage and making of its Irish-American Diaspora a prideful concept to be celebrated and admired.
Modern customs
In every year since 1991, March has been proclaimed Irish-American Heritage Month by the US Congress or President due to the date of Saint Patrick's Day. Christian denominations in the United States observing this feast day include the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Episcopal Church (United States), and the Roman Catholic Church. Today, Saint Patrick's Day is widely celebrated in America by Irish and non-Irish alike. For most Irish-Americans, this holiday is both religious and festive. It is one of the leading days for consumption of alcohol in the United States, as individuals are allowed to break their Lenten sacrifices for the day in order to celebrate Saint Patrick's Day. Alcohol consumption levels vary by state. The consumption of artificially colored green beer is a common celebration. Green Beer Day, for instance, is a tradition among students at Miami University in Ohio dating to 1952; the day has been held on the Thursday before spring break due to the fact that Saint Patrick's Day often occurs during the spring recess. The holiday has been criticized for promoting over-indulgence in alcohol, resulting in drunk driving, property damage, absenteeism, public urination and vomiting, and other ill effects. A notable difference between traditions widely observed in the United States versus those of Ireland is the consumption of corned beef, which is not a traditional Irish dish, but rather one that was adopted by the new immigrants upon their arrival in the 19th century.
Many people choose to wear green colored clothing and items. Traditionally, those who are caught not wearing green are pinched "affectionately".
Seattle and other cities paint the traffic stripe of their parade routes green. Chicago dyes its river green and has done so since 1962 when sewer workers used green dye to check for sewer discharges and had the idea to turn the river green for Saint Patrick's Day. Originally 100 pounds of vegetable dye was used to turn the river green for a whole week but now only forty pounds of dye is used and the color only lasts for several hours. Indianapolis also dyes its main canal green. Savannah dyes its downtown city fountains green. Missouri University of Science and Technology - St Pat's Board Alumni paint 12 city blocks kelly green with mops before the annual parade. In Jamestown, New York, the Chadakoin River (a small tributary that connects Conewango Creek with its source at Chautauqua Lake) is dyed green each year.
Columbia, South Carolina, dyes its fountain green in the area known as Five Points (a popular collegiate location near the University of South Carolina). A two-day celebration is held over St Patrick's Day weekend. In Boston, Evacuation Day is celebrated as a public holiday for Suffolk County. While officially commemorating the British departure from Boston, it was made an official holiday after Saint Patrick's Day parades had been occurring in Boston for several decades and is believed to have been popularized because of its falling on the same day as Saint Patrick's Day. Since 1992, the participation of gay and lesbian people in the Boston parade has been disputed and this was the subject of the 1995 U.S. Supreme Court case Hurley v. Irish-American Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Group of Boston. The New York parade has experienced a similar controversy since 1991, with boycotts by Mayors Menino and Dinkins. Mayor Bill de Blasio did not attend the 2014 New York City parade, but the ban on gays and lesbians in the New York City parade was announced to have been lifted on September 3, 2014. Mayor Walsh did not attend the Boston parade in 2014, but did so in 2015 and 2016. Walsh did not march in the 2017 parade.
In the Northeastern United States, peas are traditionally planted on Saint Patrick's Day.
Abbreviations The accepted abbreviated form of Saint Patrick's Day is correctly spelled St. Paddy's Day; however, in the United States, it is frequently—and erroneously—shortened to St. Patty's, which is incorrect. Patty is a shortening of the feminine name Patricia. Patrick is the Anglicized form of the Gaelic name, Padraig, shortened to Paddy.
According to Merriam-Webster,Patrick is the Anglicized form of Pádraig, nicknamed Páidín and Paddy.In 2022, CNN wrote: "On the Emerald Isle, we say St. Patty's about as much as we utter "top O' the mornin to ye" while eating corned beef and cabbage alongside a leprechaun minding a pot of gold and wearing a four-leaf clover in our lapel – i.e., absolutely never." Additionally, Irish-born reporter Donie O'Sullivan is quoted as saying: "I poke fun at my friends here who might call it St. Patty's Day, but it's not a big deal."