March 16, 2026 by Kayla Magnus (‘29)
While for most, it may not be among the top tier of holidays like Christmas and Halloween are, Saint Patrick’s day has its fair share of memorable traditions that bring joy to many. Below are a few Saint Patty’s Day traditions that are classics to the month of March for the Irish and otherwise:
- One of the most well known is definitely making leprechaun traps. As kids, I know we all had our dose of bewilderment after leaving our hand-crafted traps out overnight and waking up to a messy house and the naive hope of catching a leprechaun. This was a nostalgic yet extremely disappointing tradition that always left the house or classroom in chaos.
- A very basic and somewhat general tradition is simply wearing green, even if your family doesn’t usually go all out for Saint Patty’s day, wearing green is a nice way to subtly add to the celebratory joy. The color green resembles the shamrock, Ireland’s national flower, and is a symbol of Irish nationalism and pride that can be dated back to the 18th century.
- Another tradition that many people follow is attending Saint Patrick’s parades (one near us is the Albany parade). Each year, people will fill the streets with festive paraphernalia and spirit, music and rainbows to celebrate this day of celebration of Irish culture and the feast day of St. Patrick.
- A sub-tradition of attending pubs and indulging in the very popular irish beer (for those of legal age of course) is “drowning the shamrock” which means placing a shamrock in the last serving of whiskey or beer drank that night. It is a tradition many adult pub-goers practice on the night of March 17, as it gives good luck and is a toast to St. Patrick.
- Some well known Saint Patrick’s Day classics in the food category are corn beef, cabbage, and Irish soda bread which is sold at our own Mrs. London’s, as well as potato pancakes; all popular in the Irish palette.
- Irish step dancing is also a very big part of Saint Patrick’s day celebrations. This is a very traditional form of dance that is defined in its intricate footwork and very rigid upper body, with different categories such as solo dancing, ceili (group) dancing, and show dancing. These all are performed with traditional Irish music.