10 Fun Facts About St. Patrick's Day

1. New York's St. Patrick's Day parade is the longest running civilian parade in the world. This year nearly three million spectators are expected to watch the spectacle and some 150,000 participants plan to march.

2. Traditional St Patrick’s Day food includes, Irish soda bread, corned beef and cabbage, Irish stew, and of course, Guinness. But you'll only find this traditional meal in America - it's not part of Ireland's celebration.

3. Some American towns have “Irish” names. You could visit: Mount Gay-Shamrock, West Virginia; Shamrock Lakes, Indiana; Shamrock, Oklahoma; Shamrock, Texas; Dublin, California and Dublin, Ohio.

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4. St. Patrick did not always have a saintly temper. Sometimes he lost it and let the curses fly. Some of his curses, with the help of geographical occurrences, worked - like the one that made a certain field sink under the sea and thereby useless for cultivation. St. Patrick's oxen had been refused permission to graze there and that had riled him a bit.

5. St. Patrick had a strong sense of justice. Once he cured a blind man, but a certain individual who had laughed at the blind fellow promptly went blind alongside.

6. According to legend, wearying of St. Bridget's constant complaints about the traditional social mores requiring women to wait for marriage proposals to come their way or forget about the matter entirely, St. Patrick instituted the practice of allowing women to propose to men on a Leap Year. The reason he didn't make it an every day occurrence can perhaps be gleaned from the fact that on the very next Leap Year he found himself on the receiving end of a proposal from St. Bridget herself. He couldn't withstand the constant complaints, he would have been ploughed down by the constant proposals.

7. Legend says that each leaf of the clover means something: the first is for hope, the second for faith, the third for love and the fourth for luck.

8. On average, every American consumes 22 gallons of beer per year.

9. The original Guinness Brewery in Dublin has a 9,000 year lease.

10. The Leprechaun is an Irish fairy. He looks like a small, old man (about 2 feet tall), often dressed like a shoemaker, with a cocked hat and a leather apron. According to legend, leprechauns are aloof and unfriendly, live alone, and pass the time making shoes. They also possess a hidden pot of gold.

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