Your Ultimate Guide to St Patrick's Day
23 Jan 2024, 10:35:00
St Patrick’s Day is one of the year’s biggest highlights for any serious party animal. Celebrating all things Irish is always great fun, and we’ve put together this handy guide to help you enjoy the day!
What To Do
Head To A Parade
When you’re celebrating St. Patrick's Day in the UK, there’s always plenty to do. If you live in or near a city, chances are you won’t have to look too hard to find a parade! This is the perfect way to spend the day, particularly if you’re celebrating as a family. You might even pluck up enough courage to try some traditional Irish dancing! Don’t worry, you don’t need to learn the whole of Riverdance.
Throw Your Own St. Patrick's Day Party
Whether you're planning on celebrating with your Irish family or you want an excuse to throw a party with your mates St.Patrick's Day is the perfect excuse. Our collection of St.Patrick's Day decorations are the ideal way to set the scene, discover banners covered in shamrocks, paper plates for you to enjoy your buffet with and shot glasses for raising a glass to the green isle.
What To Eat and Drink
Over the years, St Patrick’s Day has become known as a day to have a few drinks and really let your hair down. You won’t need to look too hard to find Irish tipples behind any bar. In fact, you’ll probably recognise most of them, including Guinness and many of your favourite brands of stout, whiskey and cider. It’s certainly one way to get the party started, but everything in moderation, of course!
If you have kids attending or you want to create some non-alcholic treats for your guests, you could create milkshakes with some mint choc chip ice cream and a splash of green food colouring or create a mocktail with lemonade and apple syrup.
What To Wear
The short answer is ‘something green’. It’s actually thought that St Patrick was more associated blue during his life, but for various historical reasons, green has come to be seen as the colour of Ireland. If you’re looking for a cool story behind it, there’s a popular myth that wearing green on St Patrick’s Day makes you invisible to leprechauns and fairies, who will spend the day pinching anyone who didn’t get the green memo. You can avoid this fate by picking your favourite from our St Patrick’s Day fancy dress selection!
Celebrate the luck of the Irish with our collection of St. Patrick's Day Fancy Dress. From lucky leprechauns to St. Patrick's Day hats that will go down a treat at the Irish bar, our collection of St. Paddy's Day outfits are ideal for March 17th.
The iconic Leprechaun outfit will have you jigging the ngiht away in a top hat, green and yellow suit with a pot of gold (drinks are on you). Or if you're looking for something a bit more subtle to go with your green outfit our rainbow glasses and shamrock hat add the finishing touch to any Paddy's day outfit.
Is St Patrick’s Day a Bank Holiday?
Only in Ireland, we’re afraid. That’s fair enough though, isn’t it? As far as the UK is concerned, it means the lucky people of Northern Ireland get the day off, but the celebrations will have to wait if you’re in England, Wales or Scotland. St Patrick's Day is always on the 17th of March, which makes planning easy. The bank holiday will always be the next Monday after the 17th (if that isn't itself a Monday).
How is St Patrick’s Day celebrated around the world?
Few festivals have as big an appeal around the world as St Patrick’s Day. Most major tourist cities have an Irish bar, so wherever you are, chances are there’s a celebration somewhere! If you’re wondering where the biggest celebrations are, New York’s parade attracts 2 million people to Manhattan every year, while Chicago lights up its largest buildings in green, and even dyes its river the same colour!
Then there’s London, where revellers gather in Trafalgar Square to enjoy traditional Irish music after a parade through the city. You’ve probably realised by now that parades are very much the order of the day around the world, with Paris, Toronto, Sydney, Seoul and Moscow among the cities getting in on the act. Some places put their own local spin on their St Patrick’s Day celebration. Buenos Aires swaps the traditional parade for a noisy street party, while Tokyo has created a fusion of Irish and Japanese cultural fun.
In Dubai, singer Bob Geldof has performed a St Patrick’s Day concert in the city’s Irish Village for many years. Yes, really! None of those places get the day off for St Patrick’s Day though. In fact, only one other country besides Ireland does, and that’s the Caribbean island of Montserrat. It has a long history of Irish refugee immigration dating back to the 17th century and uses St Patrick’s Day to celebrate its independence.
Now that we’ve given you a few ideas and shown you how people celebrate St Patrick’s Day around the world, it’s over to you! Sláinte!
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What To Do
Head To A Parade
When you’re celebrating St. Patrick's Day in the UK, there’s always plenty to do. If you live in or near a city, chances are you won’t have to look too hard to find a parade! This is the perfect way to spend the day, particularly if you’re celebrating as a family. You might even pluck up enough courage to try some traditional Irish dancing! Don’t worry, you don’t need to learn the whole of Riverdance.
Throw Your Own St. Patrick's Day Party
Whether you're planning on celebrating with your Irish family or you want an excuse to throw a party with your mates St.Patrick's Day is the perfect excuse. Our collection of St.Patrick's Day decorations are the ideal way to set the scene, discover banners covered in shamrocks, paper plates for you to enjoy your buffet with and shot glasses for raising a glass to the green isle.
If you're throwing your own St. Patrick's Day party then you need a playlist full of Irish icons and we've got it covered with our ultimate St.Patrick's Day playlist.
Now you have the playlist started it's time to start a traditional Irish ceili.
This is a fun, simple dance for couples, and the steps are often called out by the most experienced dancer to make life easier for beginners.
Often performed in a ring formation, with some traditional step dancing this is the perfect way to get all your guests up and jigging to some iconic Irish music.
What To Eat and Drink
Over the years, St Patrick’s Day has become known as a day to have a few drinks and really let your hair down. You won’t need to look too hard to find Irish tipples behind any bar. In fact, you’ll probably recognise most of them, including Guinness and many of your favourite brands of stout, whiskey and cider. It’s certainly one way to get the party started, but everything in moderation, of course!
If you have kids attending or you want to create some non-alcholic treats for your guests, you could create milkshakes with some mint choc chip ice cream and a splash of green food colouring or create a mocktail with lemonade and apple syrup.
What To Wear
The short answer is ‘something green’. It’s actually thought that St Patrick was more associated blue during his life, but for various historical reasons, green has come to be seen as the colour of Ireland. If you’re looking for a cool story behind it, there’s a popular myth that wearing green on St Patrick’s Day makes you invisible to leprechauns and fairies, who will spend the day pinching anyone who didn’t get the green memo. You can avoid this fate by picking your favourite from our St. Patrick's Fancy Dress selection!
Celebrate the luck of the Irish with our collection of St. Patrick's Day Fancy Dress. From lucky leprechauns to St. Patrick's Day hats that will go down a treat at the Irish bar, our collection of St. Paddy's Day outfits are ideal for March 17th.
The iconic leprechaun outfit will have you jigging the ngiht away in a top hat, green and yellow suit with a pot of gold (drinks are on you). Or if you're looking for something a bit more subtle to go with your green outfit our rainbow glasses and shamrock hat add the finishing touch to any Paddy's day outfit.
Is St Patrick’s Day a Bank Holiday?
Only in Ireland, we’re afraid. That’s fair enough though, isn’t it? As far as the UK is concerned, it means the lucky people of Northern Ireland get the day off, but the celebrations will have to wait if you’re in England, Wales or Scotland. St Patrick's Day is always on the 17th of March, which makes planning easy. The bank holiday will always be the next Monday after the 17th (if that isn't itself a Monday).
How is St Patrick’s Day celebrated around the world?
Few festivals have as big an appeal around the world as St Patrick’s Day. Most major tourist cities have an Irish bar, so wherever you are, chances are there’s a celebration somewhere! If you’re wondering where the biggest celebrations are, New York’s parade attracts 2 million people to Manhattan every year, while Chicago lights up its largest buildings in green, and even dyes its river the same colour!
Then there’s London, where revellers gather in Trafalgar Square to enjoy traditional Irish music after a parade through the city. You’ve probably realised by now that parades are very much the order of the day around the world, with Paris, Toronto, Sydney, Seoul and Moscow among the cities getting in on the act. Some places put their own local spin on their St Patrick’s Day celebration. Buenos Aires swaps the traditional parade for a noisy street party, while Tokyo has created a fusion of Irish and Japanese cultural fun.
In Dubai, singer Bob Geldof has performed a St Patrick’s Day concert in the city’s Irish Village for many years. Yes, really! None of those places get the day off for St Patrick’s Day though. In fact, only one other country besides Ireland does, and that’s the Caribbean island of Montserrat. It has a long history of Irish refugee immigration dating back to the 17th century and uses St Patrick’s Day to celebrate its independence.
Now that we’ve given you a few ideas and shown you how people celebrate St Patrick’s Day around the world, it’s over to you! Sláinte!
