Irish National Costums
Holidays and Celebrations
The Irish celebrate New Year's Day on 1 January. Saint Patrick's Day on 17 March is a
national holiday and is marked by parades, shamrock decorations, and sometimes the
wearing of clothing that is green (the national color). Legend has it that resourceful Saint
Patrick made use of the three-lobed shamrock as a diagram to explain the Holy Trinity to
his uneducated congregation. However, the pre-Christian Irish had long associated the
shamrock with Trefulngid Tre-eochair ("The Triple Bearer of the Triple Key"), the
spring fertility god manifestation, whose symbol can be a shamrock or three legs
spiraling together (as seen on the flag of the Isle of Man).
The Irish celebrate Easter, and Easter Monday is a public holiday. Christmas is
celebrated on 25 December, but celebrations may last until New Year's Day. An old
custom has boys blackening their faces, carrying paper wrens, and asking for spare
change on Saint Stephen's Day (26 December)
annaabi.ee 
