Everyone's Irish on St. Patrick's!

Are you wearing green to celebrate St. Patrick's Day? People wear green on this day because it represents the color of Ireland's verdant landscape--St. Patrick is the patron saint of Ireland. Green is also the color of the shamrock, a plant that's the national emblem of Ireland. In addition to donning something green, St. Patrick's Day revelers watch or participate in parades, head to a pub to down a couple of pints, and eat some Irish grub, such as corned beef and cabbage.

In New York City, the St. Patrick's Day parade on Fifth Avenue is the largest one in the nation. It marches past St. Patrick's Cathedral and usually features Irish dancing, Irish music from bagpipes, and traditional Irish garb. Here's a short video from History.com with interesting facts about St. Patrick's Cathedral, which is said to welcome much more visitors than the Empire State Building! Have you been one of its visitors?

• VERDANT - green from vegetation (grass, plants, trees)
• EMBLEM - symbol
• DON - wear; put on
• REVELERS - party goers
• HEAD TO - go to 
• DOWN - drink (usually quickly)
• PINT - about half a liter (usually of beer or something similar--ale, lager--in this context)
• GRUB - food #slang
• GARB - clothing 


Here's another video about St. Patrick's Day from History.com. If you know a bit about St. Patrick's Day, bet you didn't know some of these facts! 



Have a safe and happy St. Patrick's Day, everyone!


--Joe Yu, ESL instructor