Hosting Your Own Irish American Festivities With Saint Patricks Day Party Ideas

If you were living in Ireland before the dawn of the Twentieth Century, then you would have celebrated St. Patrick's Day by attending morning mass and eating ham, bacon or lamb for dinner. You would think about St Patrick and early Christianity and would spend the day quietly.

Your family would be thankful that the potato famine has ended and all could be assembled in good health and good spirits, despite the cold. As you know, today's American St. Patrick's Day celebrations are filled with multiple parades, pub crawls, music festivals, competitive games, theatrical performances and dinner parties. Here are some Saint Patricks Day party ideas to help you host your own Irish-American festivities.

Decorations may be among your Saint Patricks Day party ideas as well. Some people feel that there is no such thing as "too much green" and they purchase green tablecloths, confetti, balloons, napkins and paper ribbons.

At www.orientaltradingpost.com, you can get stuffed green gorillas, inflatable leprechauns, shamrock mobiles, leprechaun door hangers and green confetti. They also have pot of gold centerpieces, "Kiss Me I'm Irish" mints, "Happy St. Pats" yard flags, fridge magnets, candles, "faith family friends" pillows, plastic cups and party platters.

You can also find a number of fun and inexpensive Saint Patricks Day party favors here as well. For tasteful decor, you may want to check with your local florist for www.celticbydesign.coma St. Patrick's Day centerpiece. You may also want to visit , www.irishindeed.com or www.simplyirishgifts.com for Irish home decor that's suitable all year round.

Lastly, you may want to wrap up your dinner party with Irish themed movies. Saint Patricks Day party ideas for movies include Going My Way (with Bing Crosby), The Bells of St. Mary's (with Bing Crosby & Ingrid Bergman), The Quiet Man (with John Wayne & Maureen O'Hara), Angela's Ashes (Frank McCourt's memoir), Michael Collins (Liam Neeson), Waking Ned Devine, The Field (Richard Harris), In America, Out of Ireland, Gangs of New York (Leonardo DiCaprio), Evelyn (Pierce Brosnan), Darby O'Gill and the Little People, The Crying Game, Veronica Guerin, Leprechaun, and The Magdalen Sisters.

For more info on these St. Patrick's Day films, visit www.rottentomatoes.com.

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The Irish Celebrate Saint Patrick

Saint Patrick is not just the patron saint behind many Irish celebrations, but he's also celebrated around the world, with some of the biggest Saint Patrick's Day celebrations taking place in Boston, New York City, Chicago, Savannah, San Francisco and Seattle.

Americans love their corned beef and cabbage and their Irish lineage. So who is this mysterious man behind the celebrations? This article will report what is known about the life of this important saint.

After more than six years as a slave in Ireland, Saint Patrick escaped. According to his own writings, the voice of God spoke to him in a dream, telling him to leave Ireland. He walked 200 miles from County Mayo (where some scholars believe he was being held) to the Irish Coast.

He journeyed back to Britain, where he experienced a second vision from an angel, who told him to return to Ireland as a missionary. Patrick studied religion for over fifteen years and finally returned to Ireland after being ordained as a priest.

Despite the myth that Saint Patrick's Day is celebrated because "Patrick brought Christianity to Ireland," he is reported to have really spread the faith around the nation and converted the masses, which is why we celebrate his day.

Today we celebrate Saint Patrick's Day on the alleged date of Saint Patrick's death, which is March 17th. St. Patrick's Day is celebrated world wide by people of Irish descent, Roman Catholics, Anglicans, Eastern Orthodox and others in English-speaking countries. "Everyone is Irish on St. Paddy's Day," they cry.

Irish festivities include weeks of festivals with dancing, crafts, theatrical performances, historical tours, dinners, competitions, music and mass. The parties in America are usually centered on corned beef and cabbage dinners, parades, pub crawls and concerts.

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Irish Holiday Celebrating St Patricks Day

When someone mentions the Irish holiday of St. Patrick's Day, many images come to mind, such as shamrocks, the color green, leprechauns, Guinness, corned beef and cabbage.

But how many of these things came directly from the motherland and how many of these "Irish mores" are really just American traditions? Have we lost something in all the parades, pub crawls and festivals? Perhaps the real meaning has more to do with St Patrick and early Christianity than with these festivities we partake of today.

Some people are annoyed at how the Irish holiday becomes a tourist-type attraction that has little to do with Ireland and its rich cultural traditions.

"The corned beef and cabbage thing makes me laugh," says Yvonne Ivory, a Dublin native who lectures at San Diego State University. "Other things annoy me," she adds, saying that the Blarney Stone is something reserved for tourists only.

"The myth is if you kiss the Blarney stone you become eloquent. I've never heard of Irish people kissing the Blarney stone. And I've never seen green beer in Ireland."

As the Irish became more successful in America, other successful immigrant groups, such as the Polish, the Italian, the Ukrainian and the Latinos could all celebrate their similar experiences.

Irish-Americans wanted to bring over pieces of the traditional Irish way of life for their Irish holiday, but they also wanted to celebrate their new success. Corned beef replaced bacon, ham or lamb. They took St. Patrick's shamrock "Holy Trinity" metaphor and made four leaf clovers a symbol of good luck.

They took the Gaelic tradition of fairies and devised the leprechaun. Sometimes Irish-Americans get a tough rap, but the Irish truly assimilated into American culture, while still retaining their Irish traditions.

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