St Patrick's Day is being celebrated by Irish communities around the world. Here we list 10 fascinating facts about the celebration of Ireland's patron saint:
1. St. Patrick is the patron saint of Ireland, although he was born in Britain, around 385AD. His parents Calpurnius and Conchessa were Roman citizens living in either Scotland or Wales, according to different versions of his story.
2. As a boy of 14 he was captured and taken to Ireland where he spent six years in slavery herding sheep. He returned to Ireland in his 30s as a missionary among the Celtic pagans.
3. Legend has it that he used the native shamrock as a symbol of the holy trinity when preaching and brought the Latin alphabet to Ireland.
4. Miracles attributed to him include the driving of serpents out of Ireland. However, evidence suggests post-glacial Ireland never had any snakes in the first place.
5. Wearing green, eating green food and even drinking green beer, is said to commemorate St Patrick's use of the shamrock - although blue was the original colour of his vestments.
6. St Patrick was said to have proclaimed that everyone should have a drop of the "hard stuff" on his feast day after chastising an innkeeper who served a short measure of whiskey. In the custom known as "drowning the shamrock", the shamrock that has been worn on a lapel or hat is put in the last drink of the evening.
7. Popular Irish toasts on St Patrick's Day, include: may the roof above us never fall in, and may we friends beneath it never fall out.
8. St. Patrick's Day was first celebrated in America in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1737. Around 34 million modern Americans claim Irish ancestry.
9. It is believed that St Patrick died on March 17 in 461AD. It is a national holiday in Ireland, and on the island of Montserrat in the Caribbean, which was founded by Irish refugees. It is a bank holiday in Northern Ireland and a provincial holiday in the Canadian province of Newfoundland.
10. Dublin has a parade that attracts hundreds of thousands of people, while in Chicago the river is dyed green for a few hours. The biggest parade is normally held in New York, while the largest celebration in the southern hemisphere is in Sydney, Australia.
圣帕特里克节（St. Patrick's Day）是每年的3月17日，是为了纪念爱尔兰守护神圣帕特里克。这一节日5世纪末期起源于爱尔兰，如今已成为爱尔兰的国庆节。随着爱尔兰后裔遍布世界各地，现在，圣帕特里克节已经渐渐在一些国家成为节日。
圣帕特里克节是全世界爱尔兰团体都在庆贺的节日。下面是关于节日庆祝的10个有趣事实。
1. 虽然是在公元385年前后出生在不列颠岛，但圣帕特里克是爱尔兰的守护神。根据不同版本的历史记载，他的父母卡尔普尔尼乌斯和孔切萨是居住在苏格兰或者威尔士的罗马公民。
2. 14岁时，圣帕特里克被捕并被带往爱尔兰，在那里他作为奴隶牧羊6年。三十多岁时，圣帕特里克作为凯尔特异教徒传教士回到爱尔兰。
3. 传说他在传教时使用当地的三叶草作为神圣的三位一体的象征，并且把拉丁字母表介绍到爱尔兰。
4. 圣帕特里克成功将大毒蛇赶出爱尔兰的传说增加了他的传奇色彩。然而证据显示爱尔兰在冰河期以后从没有过蛇。
5. 据说身穿绿色服装，吃绿色食物，甚至喝绿色啤酒是为了纪念圣帕特里克使用三叶草，尽管他的法衣最初是蓝色。
6. 据说圣帕特里克曾训斥了一位卖威士忌缺斤短两的酒馆老板。此后圣帕特里克声明每个人在他的宗教节日都应该喝一滴“烈性酒”。因此在“淹没三叶草”这个众所周知的习俗中，节日里戴在西服翻领或者帽子上的三叶草最后会被放在酒里作为晚上最后一饮。
7. 爱尔兰圣帕特里克节的流行祝酒语包括：愿头上屋顶不倒，屋下朋友不分。
8. 美国马萨诸塞州的波士顿于1737年首次庆祝圣帕特里克节。大约3400万现代美国人自认为是爱尔兰后裔。
9. 据说圣帕特里克在公元461年3月17日去世。圣帕特里克节是爱尔兰和加勒比地区由爱尔兰难民建立的蒙特塞拉特岛的国定假日，在北爱尔兰是公共假日，也是加拿大纽芬兰省的假日。
10.在圣帕特里克节，都柏林的游行吸引成千上万的人；在芝加哥河流会被染成绿色几个小时。最盛大的节日游行一般在纽约；南半球规模最大的庆祝是在澳大利亚的悉尼。
Vocabulary:
patron saint: 守护神
shamrock: 三叶草
vestment: 礼拜时教士的法衣，礼服
hard stuff: 烈性酒
short measure: 分量不够
bank holiday: 公共假日
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