ORIGIN OF THE DAY

The US Embassy claims Ireland took the St. Patrick's Day tradition from their transAtlantic cousins in America. The Irish don't always like to admit who invented Saint Patrick's Day but it was actually America! Who invented St. Patrick's Day? Most people would assume the Irish, but here's a case for it being an American innovation. The U.S. Embassy in Dublin created a video five years ago which sets out to prove that it was, in fact, America which created St. Patrick’s Day and not Ireland! The video claims that Ireland took the tradition of celebrating St. Patrick’s Day from their trans-Atlantic cousins in America and sets out five distinctly American inventions that prove St Patrick’s Day, as we know it, came from the US. Top of their list is that they invented the parade tradition. Until 2018, the earliest recorded parade was one that took place in 1737 in Boston while New York City also claims a St Patrick's Day parade took place there in 1762. In recent years, however, St. Augustine in Florida emerged as a new contender for the oldest St Patrick's Day parade in the world. According to new research, St. Augustine may have well over a hundred years on Boston and New York, holding its first St. Patrick’s Day celebration in 1600 and its first parade in 1601. That aside, the embassy's second item is that Americans were turning things green long before the Irish were, with a list of examples such as green beer, green rivers, and green clothes! Number three on the list is their assertion that marching bands were invented by Americans with number four explaining the all-too-believable reason corned beef and cabbage is also a US invention. The last thing they lay claim to are the keys to the White House!