History of St. Patrick's Day

St Patrick's Day is celebrated every March 17th in honor of St Patrick the patron saint of Ireland cities across the us celebrate with parades of green Irish themed foods and bar crawls according to the History Channel St Patrick is credited with introducing Christianity to Ireland in the fifth century he was born in Britain kidnapped and brought to Ireland as a slave at the age of 16 the people of Ireland started observing a feast day on March 17th in celebration around the 9th or 10th Century but the parade started in a America according to the Library of Congress the official New York City parade dates back to March 17th 1766 although it's not a Federal holiday in the US it is a bank holiday and according to the US Census Bureau there are over 30 million residents with Irish ancestry and of course 22 News started way back when March 17th 1953 this is our birthday celebration as well and we're less than a week to go into the hoyo St Patrick's parade on Sunday March 23rd 22 News a proud sponsor of the parade you can catch us walking the route and if you can't make it in person you can watch the parade right here on 22 News or live stream it on wwlp.com coverage starts at noon on Sunday