St. Patrick's Day Trivia

St. Patrick's Day is tomorrow! In honor of the "greenest" holiday of the year, we've rounded up some bits of trivia for you to share with your residents during your St. Patrick's Day party.

• St. Patrick was not actually Irish by birth. He was a Romano-Britan Christian missionary born in England.
• The first official St. Patrick's Day parade took place in New York City in 1762.
• An estimated 13 million pints of Guinness will be consumed around the world on St. Patrick's Day.
• Although it's customary to wear green on St. Patrick's Day, the color was long considered unlucky in Ireland. Folklore held that faeries were fond of stealing people, especially children, who wore too much green.
• Although St. Patrick is credited for driving dangerous animals, especially snakes, out of Ireland, this is unlikely. Snakes have never been native to Ireland. Instead, snakes were probably representative of druidic religions, which started to vanish from Ireland after St. Patrick planted the seeds of Christianity.
•  As recently as the 1970s, pubs in Ireland were required to be closed on St. Patrick's Day because it is a national religious holiday.
• On St. Patrick's Day, workers in Chicago use 40 pounds of vegetable dye to temporarily dye the Chicago River green.

Oh, and if you raise a pint with your friends on St. Patrick's day, be sure to toast by saying "Slainté!" (pronounced SLAN-cha). It's the Irish word for "health."