St. Patrick’s Day is all about the Irish, but modern day celebrations started in the U.S.

The first St. Patrick’s Day parade was actually held in Boston in the 1700s.

This year over $5 billion will be spent on St. Patrick’s Day, with over half of Americans planning to take part in the festivities. And those people will be consuming a lot of beer, specifically Guinness. In fact, over 13 million pints of the Irish stout will be downed on. WalletHub even calculated the value of the mythical leprechaun’s pot of gold. A pot of one thousand gold coins would amount to $1.92 million.

St. Patrick’s Day to the Irish isn’t all about drinking beer and partying. For those Catholics in Ireland, it is a family day that starts out with church services in the morning to honor their patron saint and usually a parade in the afternoon. Some false legends exist about St. Patrick. Patrick didn’t lead snakes out of Ireland, but he did lead the barbarians out by converting them to Christianity. St. Patrick was born in Roman Britain in 387 to a wealthy family. When Patrick was 16 years old, he was captured, taken to Ireland and sold into slavery.

As a young man, Patrick wasn’t very religious. While enslaved by the Irish Druids for six years, Patrick took to praying, learning the Celtic language and educating himself about Druidism.

St. Patrick is known for having had visions and experiencing mystical situations. While praying, Patrick often received messages from angels. Those angels advised Patrick to flee from his master.

Patrick listened to the angels words and left. He traveled over 200 miles to a ship that returned him home to his family.

After he was reunited with his family, he had another vision, this one told him to return to Ireland. Patrick heard these voices numerous times begging him to come back and teach the Druids about Christianity. Patrick told his parents that he wanted to devote his life to teaching the word of God to his former captors.

Patrick entered the seminary and eventually made his way back to Ireland. Patrick spent 30 years in his mission and was extremely successful. St. Patrick was said to have used a shamrock to teach the meaning of the Trinity (father, son, and the holy spirit). Patrick founded many churches throughout Ireland and watched over them until his death on March 17th, 493.

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