Chicago dyes this river green each year on March 17.
Happy St. Patrick's Day!
St. Patrick's Day seems like a random holiday if you think about it... so why do we celebrate it?
A little background. St. Patrick is some Irish guy who lived from around 385-461. (I'm not making this up but Wikipedia might be.) Anyway he became something of a national hero in Ireland I guess—in fact, St. Patrick's Day is a national holiday for them.
How'd it come over to the US (not to mention the rest of the world)? Well, it must be the Roman Catholics from Ireland who immigrated into the US. The first St. Patrick's Day parade was in 1761 in Boston. George Washington even gave his troops a day off on this day in 1780 as an act of solidarity with the Irish in the Irish fight for freedom.
Basically, I guess that the holiday just stuck. I couldn't find out why we're supposed to pinch someone if they don't wear green—probably a tradition some silly schoolchildren started.
YAY for irish people!!
ReplyDeleteHow do people dye a whole river green.....isn’t that bad for the environment? What chemicals do they use to dye the river? Plus, how much dye do they put and how long does it take for the dye to dissipate into the water completely? The logistics of dying a river green seem seriously flawed......
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, Irish people are most certainly cool.
And yes, I'm a freshman whom most of you don't know.