A little bit of history…

Picture This On Granite would like to wish all of you a happy St. Patrick’s Day! But why do we celebrate St. Patrick’s Day and where does it come from?

St. Patrick’s Day or the Feast of Saint Patrick, is a cultural and religious holiday celebrated annually on 17 March, the death date of the most commonly-recognized patron saint of Ireland, Saint Patrick (c. AD 385–461).
St. Patrick’s Day was made an official Christian feast day in the early seventeenth century and is observed by the Catholic Church, the Anglican Communion (especially the Church of Ireland), the Eastern Orthodox Church and Lutheran Church. The day commemorates Saint Patrick and the arrival of Christianity in Ireland, as well as celebrates the heritage and culture of the Irish in general.

St. Patrick’s Day is a public holiday in the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland, Newfoundland and Labrador and Montserrat. It is also widely celebrated by the Irish diaspora around the world; especially in Britain, Canada, the United States, Argentina, Australia and New Zealand. Celebrations generally involve public parades and festivals and the wearing of green attire. Christians also attend church services, and the Lenten restrictions on eating and drinking alcohol are lifted for the day, which has encouraged and propagated the holiday’s tradition of alcohol consumption.

St. Patrick’s Day in New York

The New York City Parade marched for the first time on March 17, 1762 – fourteen Years before the Declaration of Independence was adopted and today it is the largest parade in the World. This Annual New York City Parade has been held for the past 252 years in honor of the Patron Saint of Ireland and the Archdiocese of New York.

The parade is reviewed from the steps of Saint Patrick’s Cathedral by His Eminence Cardinal Edward Eagan, Archbishop of New York in the same manner as the Archbishop of New York did in the early days of the parade at the Old St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Lower Manhattan when the parade was held in Lower Manhattan before the new St. Patrick’s was built on Fifth Avenue.