Each year on March 17, 2010 people dawn there best or worst green out fits to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day. But when and where did all this begin? Here is a quick history lesson on the holiday.

Saint Patrick is the most commonly recognized of the patron saints of Ireland. It began as a purely Christian holiday and became an official feast day in the early 1600s. However, it has gradually become more of a secular celebration of Ireland's culture. 

St. Patrick was born in the early fifth century in Roman Britain. At the age of sixteen Patrick was kidnapped by Irish raiders and taken captive to Ireland and forced to be slave. It is believed he was held somewhere on the west coast of Ireland, according to his Confession, he was told by God in a dream to flee from captivity to the coast, where he would board a ship and return to Britain. Upon returning, he quickly joined the Church in Auxerre in Gaul and studied to be a priest.

In 432, he again says that he was called back to Ireland, though as a bishop, to save the Irish, and indeed he was successful at this, focusing on converting royalty and aristocracy as well as the poor. Irish folklore tells that one of his teaching methods included using the shamrock to explain the Holy Trinity (the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit) to the Irish people, after nearly thirty years of teaching and spreading "God's word" he died on 17 March, 461 AD, and was buried at Downpatrick, so tradition says. Although there were other more successful missions to Ireland from Rome, Patrick endured as the principal champion of Irish Christianity and is held in esteem in the Irish Church.

The wearing of Green; originally the color associated with Saint Patrick was blue. However, over the years the color green and its association with Saint Patrick's Day grew. Green ribbons and shamrocks were worn in celebration of St Patrick's Day as early as the 17th century. Having used the shamrock to explain the Holy Trinity to the Pre-Christians Irish, displaying the three leafed clover has become a staple to the holiday. 

Today, Saint Patrick's Day is widely celebrated in America by Irish and non-Irish alike. Many people, regardless of ethnic background, wear green-colored clothing and items. Traditionally, those who are caught not wearing green are pinched affectionately.