St. Patrick’s Day Traditions: How Do The Irish Celebrate Compared To Americans?

Saint Patrick’s Day is almost here, and Americans everywhere are preparing to celebrate. Of course, they aren’t the only ones, since the holiday is strongly rooted in Irish tradition—though there may be some differences in how Americans and Irish people are prepping for the holiday.

St. Patrick’s Day occurs every year on March 17, and Americans have some very specific ways of celebrating it. While there are parades and other celebrations, the holiday is mostly classified by meals of corned beef and cabbage, plenty of beer, green clothing, kisses and shamrocks. However, while some might assume that those ways of celebrating come from the way the Irish themselves celebrate the day, there are some key differences when it comes to the holiday.

The party vibe is still very much alive and well in Ireland and shares some similarities with elements of American celebrations, Laura Plunkett, who grew up in Ireland but now lives in New York, told International Business Times.

“Like America, we also wear a lot of green. We paint shamrocks across our faces, wear large green top hats and in our youth, ran around with green face-spray paint trying to turn everyone into little green monsters like ourselves,” she said via email. “The ‘Kiss me I’m Irish’ was a fad that died somewhere in the 90’s but you can still spot the odd person wearing their ‘Kiss me’ merchandise with pride every year!”

However, some of the other things Americans do for the holiday are very different. Plunkett revealed that in Ireland, it is incorrect to shorten the holiday to “St. Patty’s Day,” as “Patty” is only a nickname for “Patricia” there, and the correct abbreviation for Patrick is “Paddy.” In addition, those who like to order and drink Irish Car Bombs at bars in America should be aware that the drink does not exist in Ireland at all due to some of the history and problems in Northern Ireland.

In addition, while Americans generally focus on their parties, drinking and parades, other areas of Ireland have a slightly different way of celebrating. According to Plunkett, parades are also common in smaller areas outside of big cities like Dublin, but they have a bigger sense of tradition and usually feature something not often seen in American parades.

“Ask any Irish person what they remember most about their parades and their answer will be—tractors,” she said. “Big tractors, small tractors, medium size tractors—any kind of tractors.”

Irish people also have an emphasis on sports during their St. Paddy’s day celebrations, with big local matches of GAA football and Hurling, which she says are always followed by amazing celebrations.

However, despite the differences between American and Irish ways of celebrating, there is one other similarity when it comes to the holiday—and that’s that very few people can really say who St. Patrick actually was.

“To be honest, we don’t really know,” Plunkett said. “The myth says that he is the Patron Saint of Ireland because he ‘ran all the snakes out of the country,’ which as you can imagine, is very hard to believe but strangely enough, we never questioned it.”

Now, Plunkett knows that St. Patrick is actually responsible for converting the country to Christianity in 400 A.D.--though children in Ireland are likely still set to believe the story about the snakes.

Regardless of how you celebrate, of course, Happy St. Patrick’s Day!