4 Ways British and American St. Patrick's Day Celebrations are Very Different 

If you live in the Southwest USA, Cinco de Mayo is very popular & wildly celebrated (and frequently 'over' celebrated by the younger crowd).

Yup!! Everyone is Irish on Cinco de Mayo too. lol

Yes, Cinco de Mayo and St. Patrick's Day are very similar in that both are celebrated more in the U.S. than in their home countries because #anyexcuseforaparty.

Doesn’t sound very Irish, though, lol

@@fabienneclavier5984 the Scots don't have a monopoly on kilts or bagpipes ;)

@@fabienneclavier5984 You should read up on Gaelic culture!

Did you ever eat at Portillo's?

@@Ogrematic Many times! My son and grandchildren are in Chicago so I visit as often as I can!

Green bagels are about as Irish as corned beef and cabbage..lol.

Lamb Stew is probably more Irish than corned beef!!! Cabbage is a popular vegetable!

I’ve wondered about green bagels too….🐝🤗❤️

Green bagels are perfect this year. Today is also *Purim,* the Feast of Esther.

@@patkern185 don't tell that to EVERYONE in Massachusetts.. WE ALL MAKE CORNED BEEF AND CABBAGE.. Carrots and potatoes parsnips and green beer. It wouldn't go over well. Especially after a few of those green beers.

🤗💚

Well, they are catholic... Lots of kids...

As they should, and, as they should. Being even 1% Irish is good. Not working is good.

Grew up in suburban New York & never heard of the pinching thing.

I learned that in a Polish-Czech-German town in south central Texas. Go figure. And Americans are just looking for reasons to party.

MORTICIA! You spoke WELSH!

@@chrisk5651 It's big in Dallas/Ft. Worth, Texas. My mother always sent me to school in green. When I turned 15, my eyes changed from blue, to green. If anyone started to pinch me, I'd just point to my eyes and say "I'm wearing green contacts".

Each year when the school calendars are approved, I look to see if March 17th falls during spring break. It often does, and a day wasted of students pinching the green-less is avoided, but not so in 2022. I bet the kids were wild; I’m glad I retired.

I am an Englisher too, with a small amount of Irish ancestry. The closest I have ever gotten to St Patrick's day celebrations was getting stuck behind a 'parade' when on a bus going into my nearest city. Lots of eye rolling ensued 😂 I barely even notice when it is St George's day. It is pretty meaningless to me and many people I know.

A lot of Irish pubs in the UK celebrate.

Lol

Steve O'Davis definitely sounds Irish...

LOL 😆 ( FOR REAL!!!!!)

a lot of it is also bounce-back overcompensation, a lot of the ethnic festivals and holidays became such big things as a way to fight to retain some tiny bit of their own cultures blended with the new as a struggle against the violently-forced loss of culture and heavy bigotry and hatred a lot of the "new" immigrant groups faced when they arrived. its a part of their history a lot of groups don't talk about, but the trauma remains in their descendants as a reclaimed pride in their heritage where once they were made to feel ashamed of accents and ethnic dress and even their foods when they first got here. even columbus day was started as an attempt to quell some of the hate against italians at the time, poor choice of poster boy as he may have been with a better look at history, but they tried.

Better not talk about “st Pat’s day” with Irish people 😉

Britain is also a county of immigrants, just like most of our history it goes further back than yours.

@@stephenlee5929 Mr. Lee I do not think our Native Americans or our Eskimos would agree with you. They have been here longer than England.

@@stephenlee5929 I see so many Europeans say this but it's goofy and patently wrong. Why? We didn't pop into existence in 1776, we descend from you. Our history is your history until we became independent. Not to mention that we have all of your history up to the split plus the history of the native people too. You act like we're missing 1000s of years of European history, but that's inaccurate, we're only missing the last 250 years because before that is our history too. But you know what you're missing? 1000s of years of native American history.

@@dianamurphy2954 Hi Diana Murphy ,not sure but UCL suggests Native Americans migrated from Asia about 15,000 years ago, 1st Humans arrived in Britain about 800,000 years ago. I agree I was not thinking of American Native History in my flippant answer Dshappystuff, but it does seem to apply, could be wrong.

@@kaldo_kaldo I act like the US school system doesn't appear to teach any history prior to 1480's. I was mainly commenting that US seems to believe it is unusual it being 'a county of largely of immigrants', Britain is too, just its immigrants happened earlier and over a longer period of time.

Not to mention the Saint Patrick's Battalion.

Also recognizing the mutual oppression by a colonial power, i.e. the San Patricios during the Mexican- American war.

Intentionally the flag of the Republic is Green White and Orange; it was devised by Thomas Patrick Meagher, who fought in the (American) Civil War and became Governor of Montana

@ M Nels hilariously expressed. ❤️from Chicago 🌈☘️

Of course, now the South Side Irish Parade in Chicago has been revived (probably for business reasons -- so many bars along Western Ave. depend on the income), but the route is shorter so that local officials can better control the melee.

Nels I live in Beverly & I must admit, the rowdyness threw me off. Beverly is such a nice, generally quiet neighborhood that seems to get invaded 1-weekend in March. The first St. Patty's weekend I was aghasted at the beer can & drunks puking as if I was on Bourbon Street. It got so bad, the Police put up barriers to keep folks out the neighboring streets & on the main drag. Oh, BTW the Parade is back!

What does it mean? (The orange color)

@@readmeup4402 Orange is the colour associated with Protestant Unionists in Northern Ireland (i.e. the part of the population of NI who oppose reunification with the Republic of Ireland and instead wish to remain part of the UK). Given that Northern Irish history in the past 100 years has been characterised by conflict between Irish Nationalist and Unionist paramilitary groups, leading to the deaths of several thousand people, wearing orange on St Patrick's day is a pretty clear way to signal an opposition to Irish culture and identity (if you want to know more about the background look up "the Troubles")

@@christopherdwane2844 ok, i got it..and yes, i've heard about "the troubles"

I'm celebrating St. Patrick's Day by watching your video and sipping on a single malt scotch because my Irish ancestors were Scotch-Irish which really means, Scotch.

Just to note that in Ireland we do not have a set type of meal for St Patricks Day. It could be Beef, Lamb or Bacon. We do not eat corned beef in Ireland (perhaps a long time ago) but Bacon and Cabbage is a very popular dish here. Corned Beef and Cabbage is mainly a US dish.

@@aidanoleary636 Yeah, my understanding is immigrants used corned beef because it's just what was available. I always stock up this time of year because it's on sale. Last year I smoked it and made pastrami.

@@aidanoleary636 what about “bangers and mash”?

@@aidanoleary636 I'm sure there were potatoes in there some where. One Irish chef said, you can never have too many potatoes.

Patrick was also an asshole. The "snakes" he "drove out" were pagans, and methods of "convincing" included murder. I have no qualms about making fun of him on St. Patrick's Day.

@@Author.Noelle.Alexandria I have to agree. I'm not a fan of religion in general, let alone Christianity.

fun fact St patricks first ever parade took place in New York

It's so sad that Caffrey's isn't about anymore

@@TastySandwich100 Yea it was great. For anyone that doesn't know it, it was a bitter. Light brown in colour but a bit cloudy? Tasted clean and had a slightly creamy texture to drink. So good.

We do st George's day -England , St David's day - wales , St Andrews day - scotland . I'm in England 🙂👋✌

celebrating St patricks day in uk is not the same as Us

@Nicky L I once had a boss who wore orange 🧡 on St. Patrick's Day because she is Protestant. Up until then, I had never heard of people wearing orange on St. Patrick's Day. I know what each of the three colors of the Irish flag 🇮🇪 represents, but I imagine many other citizens of the USA don't. Green: Catholics, Orange: Protestants, White: peace between the two. 🇮🇪

@Nicky L - I'm Protestant, too.

@@primmoore6232 its not just that Orange is also represented the Prodestents Unioninist who hated the Catholic Irish nationlist and was part of the troubles

You are correct. Most Irish immigrants were poor. They bought the closest food stuffs to Irish items they could find more cheap. They worked the jobs others didn't want and it was low pay. It seems every time a large ethnic group immigrated here , they were discriminated against - Irish, Italians, Germans, Puerto Ricans,..... takes awhile to get melted into "the pot" and become American. Well, that was TMI.

I was at the parade in St. Paul yesterday and it was a ton of fun

oooh, you're fun.

July 14th

As much as Americans love to proclaim their ancestry, I've yet to come across one that was proud to be "French", though. Is that because the French emigrants all went to Canada (if they didn't take a wrong turn Mid-atlantic and ended up in Louisiana)?

Exactly

@@joycastle. some folks in LA came from Canada (the story of Evangeline)

The big difference here is that you need 'excuses' to party and get drunk. In the UK thats any weekend.

Get used to it, teabag.

My grandfather insisted on stew for St. Patrick’s Day, made of mutton. We, the kids , all hated it. When my dear grandfather passed away we either had beef stew or corned beef and cabbage. Mom took care of us. My mother’s maiden name was McDonald and my maiden name is McLoughlin

I got so many questions who is going to pinched you 🤣

North Irish often wear orange, according to my gym teacher back in high school. She asked everyone to wear orange on March 17th. I still do, along with green.

the Irish hate hearing “St Patty”. I’m not Irish but I don’t like either.

I think Protestant orange-wearing on St. Patrick's Day is contrarian. Oddly enough, blue is the color of St. Patrick. Green is just Irish, l think, Catholic or Protestant.

I grew up in Belfast and now live in Dublin. I've never heard of anyone wearing Orange on St Patrick's day. I think it's a lovely thing that people from other countries celebrate this day, maybe not so much the alcohol aspect of it though. We're a small country, but to see so many places that light up various buildings red green is a real feel good factor for me and many others. Enjoy the day no matter what your heritage, learn a bit more about Ireland, believe it or not as have much more to offer than just pubs. It's a beautiful country and you're welcome to come over anytime.

Saint Patrick’s Day is also a Catholic holiday which explains why Mexicans celebrate it

@@ErikPT Which, with the fabled (and incorrect) legend of St. Patrick banishing all snakes from Ireland, it would make sense seeing as Snakes are a problem in Mexico and SW Texas/NM/AZ.

Yes i get what you mean. Your not literally Irish or Scottish etc you just happen to come from Irish or Scottish stock. So in other terms “a American of Irish or Scottish descent” to be more accurate.

@@matty6848 Exactly. We just don't take the time to say a whole sentence regarding our lineage.

@@stevenhoskins7850 yes Steve i totally get where your coming from. It’s just easier to “im Irish” or “Scottish” rather than go off on some long tangent about how your forefathers sailed across the Atlantic Ocean, started a new life, etc etc you’d be there all day. That explains why we see so many Americans in Scotland and Ireland because many just want too see their linage, where their forefathers came from. I did ask one American guy when i was working in Scotland why did he make the long trip over, and he said it in a simple way “it gives us closure to know what we are” yes he was a proud American but he just wanted to see, what he was and the soil he came from. Nice too think in this rat race of a world people still take time and show interest in their heritage🙂

Including cops in dress uniform (South side post-parade and "death march")....

Double the party?

@@mer8795 "to your good health" is the general idea of the phrase.

Ah yes. Though I was trying to say - twice the reason to party; double the fun. St. PADDY & British army leaving.

His mother sounds slightly odd. I lived through the IRA terrorism campaigns of the 70s, 80s and 90s in British, and generally no-one saw the St Patrick's day celebrations in the US as "like rioting". There were some concerns that during St Patrick's day, IRA fundraisers (Noraid) were out raising funds to buy weapons, but that was mainly it. As for John Major's daughter, she married in 1998 at the age of 27, so of dateable age through the 90s. John Major was PM in the 90s until 1997.

@@simhedgesrex7097 Those dates do line up. He was a former (semi-pro? ) football player, quite posh (at least to our eyes), and pretty much every girl in the school was in love with him. He was a truly excellent teacher, though as a parent I find his choice of teaching DH Lawrence's Sons and Lovers instead of the standard literature curriculum to be an... interesting... decision.

@@emjayemjayhawk I did Sons and Lovers at secondary school in the UK at age 14 - it was a standard text over here in many schools.

@@simhedgesrex7097 That is fascinating, but it makes more sense now why he would sub that in. I live in one of the most conservative parts of the country and it was a US literature class, so it was an out-there selection.