BLOG: St. Patrick's Day: Myth vs Fact

Are you Irish?  Well, everyone is on St. Patrick's Day!

Here's some St. Patrick's Day trivia for you.  Answers are at the end of the post. Now you can place a bet with friends and win yourself a fine Guinness or two!

1.  Where was St. Patrick born?

2.  What was he famous for?

3.  Where was the first St. Patrick's parade held?

4.  What city dyes its river green on St. Patrick's Day?

5.  How much Guinness is consumed on St. Patrick's Day?

I've visited this beautiful, magical country twice, and I'm going back in October. I'm looking forward to some good craic at the pubs-and I don't mean drugs. Craic means  "good times." If you'd like to join me, let me know – I'm taking a San Juan Capistrano group with me this time.

Answers:

1. England. Around 390 A.D.  He was kidnapped by Irish pirates and sold into slavery in Northern Ireland where he was a sheepherder for seven years. He escaped and returned to Britain. He then had a spiritual calling to go back to Ireland, where he became a powerful priest.   

2. Driving the snakes out of Ireland. Just one problem – there were never any snakes in Ireland – the water around the island is too cold for them to survive a long swim. The snakes symbolize the driving out of pagan traditions.

3.  New York City. Irish soldiers serving in the British army began the tradition in 1762.

4.  Chicago. The tradition started in 1957 when a manager of the plumber's union ran into a plumber who was using a shamrock green dye to track waste leakage and got the idea to dye the entire river on St. Patrick's Day. It's also been suggested that leprechauns have something to do with it.

5. Guinness is the largest brewer of stout in the world. On any given day 5.5 million pints of Guinness, are consumed around the world. On St. Patrick's Day, that number more than doubles to 13 million pints.