With St. Patrick’s Day right around the corner some may ask themselves what exactly is St Patrick’s Day or what to do on this holiday?

St. Patrick’s Day is the national holiday of the Irish, typically a celebration of the Irish patron named “Saint Patrick”, and is an annual festival to get together with friends & family to feast on Irish foods and indulge in Irish beverages such as Guinness Beer or Baileys. Usually this day is celebrated on March 17th and millions of people across the world participate in marches, special events and parties.

As many know and see, the day of St. Patrick’s is associated with the colour green but that hasn’t always been true. In the times of St. Patrick, he was a man recognized from the colour blue by the Irish people. The saying “wearing of green” which meant wearing a shamrock on your clothing, was a symbol of Irish nationalism to the faith of Roman Catholic. This is more than likely why green to this day is more prominent and used as the colour of St Patrick’s Day.

In Canada specifically the day is brought out by people partying and going to the bars and drinking Green Beer, which is beer with food colouring in it. If you’re planning to go out for a night on the town it’s recommended to show up early so you can be sure to get in. The bars are literally jam packed with people on this day of celebration and the lineups to get in can sometimes take hours.

From 1919 to 1927 the Toronto Maple Leafs used to be known as the Toronto St. Patrick’s, and wore green jerseys. Of course the name soon changed to the Toronto Maple Leafs. However on March 17th, 1999 they supported the day by wearing green St. Patty’s jerseys while playing an NHL game aired on Hockey Night in Canada.

The holiday of St. Patrick’s Day is full of events and parties for people to remember and celebrate their Irish heritage, even if they’re not Irish. So get out there on March 17th and drink a green beer for Saint Patrick!