Saint Patrick's Day, (Irish: Lá Fhéile Pádraig) is a yearly holiday celebrated on the 17th of March. It began as a purely Catholic holiday and became an official feast day in the early 1600s. In the mid-1990s the Irish government began a campaign to use Saint Patrick's Day to showcase Ireland and its culture. The government set up a management group with the aim to: Offer a national festival that ranks amongst all of the greatest celebrations in the world and promote excitement throughout Ireland via innovation, creativity, grass-roots involvement, and marketing activity.
A large, national multi-day festival now takes place each year in Dublin (and elsewhere in the Republic). The first was held on 17 March 1996. In 1997, it became a three-day event, and by 2000 it was a four-day event. By 2006, the festival was five days long. More than 675,000 people attended the 2009 parade. Overall 2009's five day festival saw close to 1 million visitors, who took part in festivities that included concerts, outdoor theatre performances and firework displays.
The shortest parade takes place in Dripsey, Cork. The procession travels just 100 yards - between the two village pubs.
Originally, the colour associated with Saint Patrick was blue. Over the years the colour green and its association with Saint Patrick's day grew. Green ribbons and shamrocks were worn in celebration as early as the 17th century. It is said that he used the shamrock, a three-leaved plant, to explain the Holy Trinity to the pagan Irish, and the wearing and display of shamrocks and shamrock-inspired designs have become a ubiquitous feature of the day. In the 1798 rebellion, in hopes of making a political statement, Irish soldiers wore full green uniforms on the 17th of March in hopes of catching public attention. The phrase 'the wearing of the green', meaning to wear a shamrock on one's clothing, derives from a song of the same name.
In 2009 and 2010, even the White House fountain turned green!
However, everywhere, it is a time for plenty of downing of the Guinness. In 1903, thanks to the Bank Holiday (Ireland) Act, Saint Patrick's Day became an official public holiday. The act was introduced by Irish MP James O'Mara who later brought in the law that required that pubs and bars be closed on March 17th, after drinking got out of hand, a provision that was repealed in the 1970s.
In Northern Ireland it is only a 'bank holiday'. The Northern
Ireland Assembly has discussed this frequently but as of yet no decision
has been made to make it a public holiday.
Christian leaders in Ireland have expressed concern about the secularisation of St. Patrick's Day. In The Word magazine's March 2007 issue, Fr. Vincent Twomey wrote, "It is time to reclaim St Patrick's Day as a church festival." He questioned the need for 'mindless alcohol-fuelled revelry' and concluded that "It is time to bring the piety and the fun together."
Around the world, wherever there are Irish people, or people of Irish descent, and, including those who wish they were Irish, expressive celebration take place. In the USA some things are taken to the extreme, dying the colour of rivers and fountains, for example. 
