Quiz yourself on these fun facts about Saint Patrick's Day.
With St. Patrick's Day less than a month, it's time to test yourself on some St. Patrick's Day trivia!
Have a go and tell us how you do in the comments section below!
St. Patrick's Day trivia:
Who invented the Saint Patrick's Day Parade?
Here's looking at you, America. We have a lot to thank Americans for (although we don't always like to admit it) but they are the ones responsible for all this celebrating on March 17, not the Irish.
Where was the first Saint Patrick's Day Parde held?
Boston St. Patrick's Day parade (Getty Images)
The world’s first recorded Saint Patrick's Day Parade took place in Boston on March 18, 1737, followed by the New York Parade, which first took place in 1762.
Ireland took over a century to jump on the parade float with the rest of the world and only had their first St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Dublin in 1931.
In 2018, however, we discovered that the very first Saint Patrick's Day may have been in Florida, quite sometime before the New York and Boston parades.
What is Saint Patrick's nickname?
Despite what some Americans may tell you, the nickname for Patrick is always Paddy and not Patty. The name Paddy had negative connotations at times in America but you'd never ever hear an Irish person shorten down to Patty instead of Paddy and Saint Paddy's Day or even Paddy's Day is widely used by the Irish back in the Emerald Isle.
Why do we wear green on Saint Patrick's Day?
It's traditional to don some green on March 17 (Getty Images)
The original color associated with St. Patrick was blue but because the Saint preached about the Holy Trinity through the symbol of the shamrock and the Irish ‘little folk’ were also associated with green, it became the most common shade in connection with him.
Parade committee organizers across the world wouldn’t take too kindly to us changing the color, so maybe we’ll leave it at green for now.
Did Saint Patrick rid Ireland of snakes?
Patrick is said to have banished the snakes from Ireland but in fact, Ireland never had any snakes as the weather was too miserable for the cold-blooded reptiles.
The banished snakes were thought to be symbolic of the pagan druid priests with whom Patrick might have had a few issues to iron out.
Where was Saint Patrick born?
Nope, not in Ireland! Saint Patrick was born in Wales.
* Originally published in March 2018. Updated in February 2024.
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