Saint Patrick's Day (Irish: Lá Fhéile Pádraig) is a yearly holiday celebrated on the 17th of March. It is named after Saint Patrick (circa AD 387–461), the most commonly recognised of the patron saints of Ireland. It began as a purely Catholic holiday and became an official feast day in the early 1600s. It has gradually become more of a secular celebration of Ireland's culture.

It is a public holiday in the Republic of Ireland and a large, national multi day festival now takes place each year called St. Patrick's Festival. In Northern Ireland it is a bank holiday instead. The Northern Ireland Assembly has discussed this frequently but as of yet no decision has been made to make it a public holiday. It is a public holiday in Newfoundland and Labrador and in Montserrat. It is also widely celebrated by the Irish diaspora, especially in places such as Great Britain, Canada, the United States, Argentina, Australia, New Zealand, and Montserrat, among others.

(... from Wikipedia on 2010-09-03 13:12:39 )