||Celebration of Sainthood: Happy St. Patrick's Day||

Saint Patrick was a 5^th century Romano-British Christian missionary and Bishop of Ireland. He is known as the "Apostle of Ireland". He is regarded as the founder of Christianity in Ireland.

Saint Patrick was born in Roman Britain. His father, Calpurnius was a member of a city senate in the Roman empire. His grandfather Potitus was a Catholic priest. At the age of 16, he was captured by Irish pirates who took him to Ireland and held him captive for 6 years. This was the turning point of his life. While in captivity, Saint Patrick worked as a shepherd and would pray to God all the time which led him to convert to Christianity.

After 6 years of captivity, he ran away and landed presumably in Britain. After various adventures, he returned home to his family and studied Christianity even more.

After few years, he returned to Ireland as a Christian missionary. He spread Christianity there.

Saint Patrick's Day

Saint Patrick's Day is celebrated every year on March 17. It is believed to be the day Saint Patrick passed away. The Irish have been celebrating this day as a religious holiday for over 1000 years. On this day, the Irish families would attend church in the morning and celebrate in the afternoon. People would drink, dance and feast on the traditional meal of Irish bacon and cabbage.

The celebrations include public parades and festivals, Irish traditional music sessions and wearing of green attire and shamrock, a three-leaved plant.

USA

On March 17, 1762, Irish soldiers of the English military marched in New York City. In 1848, several New York Irish Aid societies decided to unite their parades to form one official New York City St. Patrick's Day parade. Today, it's the world's oldest and USA's largest civilian parade. In Chicago, the river is dyed green every year to celebrate St. Patrick's Day.

Great Britain

In Great Britain, Queen Elizabeth used to present bowls of shamrock to members of the Irish guards, a regiment in the British army. The Irish guards still wear shamrock on this day.

Birmingham and London hold parades on this day and Manchester hosts a two-week Irish festival.

Russia

St. Patrick's Day parade is held every year in Moscow and other cities. The main part of the Moscow parade is a military style parade. In 2014, Moscow Irish week was celebrated from 12^th to 23^rd March which celebrated the Irish culture.

International Space Station

The International Space Station has celebrated the festival in different ways. In 2011, Irish-American astronaut Catherine Coleman played a 100-year old flute and a tin whistle belonging to an Irish musical group while floating weightless in the space station on St. Patrick's Day.

Another astronaut, Chris Hadfield took photographs of Ireland from earth orbit on St. Patrick's Day in 2013.