(jaunty Irish bagpipe and drum music)

- [Narrator] For centuries,people around the world

have celebrated Saint Patrick's Day

with parades, drinks,and a whole lot of green.

- We start by having drinks at 8 a.m.

- Oh, because my ancestors areIrish, and it's lots of fun!

- At 10 o'clock, we have more drinks.

- We have ham sandwiches, we have--

- [Both] Irish soda bread.

- It's a religious holiday for me.

(man and woman laugh)

- You don't like it?

- [Narrator] Although Saint Patrick's Day

has become widely secularizedover the centuries,

it originally began as a holy day.

(serene orchestral music)

- [Charles] The originof Saint Patrick's Day

would be the death day of the saint,

the day of his entry into heaven,

his feast day, the festival of that.

- [Narrator] Feast dayswere annual celebrations

in which Christians rememberedtheir chosen saints.

- It is the liturgicalveneration of the death

of that person, the memory of what he did.

It's associated with theplaces that he visited,

founded, allegedly or otherwise.

- [Narrator] Patrick's feast day was first

observed locally, by hisown followers in Ireland.

- They kept his memory alive.

They're the people whopreserved his writings.

And the one thing anyancient group of Christians

do about their leader is theypreserve the day of death.

And we can be pretty sure thathe died on the 17th of March,

and they would have kept that loyally.

- [Narrator] By the seventhcentury, Patrick's story

had been embellishedby several biographers,

and he was made a saintby popular devotion.

- Once Patrick istransformed, that feast day

becomes not just the feastday of his own little group,

but becomes a feast daythroughout the whole of Ireland,

and within a couple of generations,

is being celebrated rightacross the Latin Church.

(serene Celtic music)

- [Narrator] In 1631, Pope Urban VIII

added the feast day tothe official calendar

of the Roman Catholic Church.

After that, the 17th of March also became

a civic occasion that was celebrated

with shamrocks, greenclothing, and local fairs.

- The parades we seetoday are not actually

something that startedin Ireland, but rather,

something that started in the U.S.

(serene acoustic guitar music)

- [Narrator] The earliestrecorded Saint Patrick's Day

parade was in New Yorkin 1766, 10 years before

the signing of theDeclaration of Independence.

- [Man] "The day of SaintPatrick, patron saint of Ireland,

"was ushered in at dawnwith fifes and drums,

"which produced a very agreeableharmony before the doors

"of many gentlemen ofthe nation and others."

- [Narrator] Some scholarsbelieve that these

celebrations of Irishidentity were actually

encouraged by the British Army,

looking to recruit Irish Americans.

- It becomes a big holiday when suddenly

markers of distinctive Irishidentity become necessary,

and Patrick is a suitablemarker, because he's a saint,

it brings in religion, it's not political,

and so, it's a suitable date for Irish

in America to have an identity day.

(serene orchestral music)

- [Narrator] Over the next two centuries,

Saint Patrick's Day evolved into a holiday

celebrated by people of all cultures.

- People like things, places, and dates

which will foster memory.

Having days we hold in commonallows us to, in a very

nice and safe way, say,"I'm different to you,

"and yet, we can have a party,

"and you and I aresomehow linked together."

(crowd cheers)

- [Narrator] It's that spirit of unity

that has drawn peoplefrom all walks of life

to celebrate this holidayfor more than 250 years.

- We stand on theshoulders of all of those

who came before us, and our responsibility

is to maintain and improve where we can,

but we also have to remainfaithful to our mission,

which is celebrating Irishfaith, heritage, and culture.

- It's important to realizeas well that Saint Patrick

himself would remind us ofwhat his story is really about,

the importance of Christianfaith and how national identity

is transcended in theuniversal family of the church.

(serene orchestral music)