While St. Patrick's Day may be the most well known holiday in connection to Ireland, many St. Patrick's Day traditions we celebrate today were actually developed in the United States.
Every March 17, Americans dress in green, march in parades, decorate homes or work place with Irish symbols and characters, and gorge ourselves on corn beef and cabbage, green milkshakes and maybe some green beer.
Here in the U.S., St. Patrick's Day serves as a day to honor Irish heritage. However, St. Patrick's Day began as a religious holiday in Ireland.
It originated in Ireland in 1631 as a religious feast day to commemorate the death of St. Patrick, who is credited with bringing Christianity to Ireland. For centuries, the Irish celebrated by attending Catholic Mass in the morning and eating modest feasts in the afternoon. There were no parades, no pubs crawls and certainly no green-tinted foods and beverages - especially considering blue, not green, was associated with St. Patrick prior to the Irish Rebellion.
"St. Patrick's Day celebrations were very subdued in Ireland; they were quiet affairs because it was considered a point of national patriotism and pride," said Allen Tatman, who helps run Paddy Malone's Irish Pub with his wife, Marilee, and has made more than 20 trips to Ireland over the years.
Even drinking, yes Irish drinking, wasn't a main practice on St. Patrick's Day until the 20th century.
"A funny thing, until 1974 in Ireland, pubs had to be closed on St. Patrick's Day; it was day of religious obligation," Tatman said.
"What happened was there would be Americans coming over for St. Patrick's Day, and the pubs would all be closed. So that's when they changed the rule, and now the biggest St. Patrick's Day parade in the world is in Dublin," he explained.
It was the Irish immigrants who found a loophole into the American economy by running Irish pubs that associated the Irish with heavy drinking, according to History.com. As a result, the Irish were actually stereotyped and discriminated against as job-stealers and drunks until they took actions to elect Irish-Americans into government, allowing the Irish and their pubs to become more accepted in American society.
It may also come as a surprise that the beloved meal of corned beef and cabbage was started in America.
"Here's something a lot of Americans do not know, is that corn beef and cabbage is not an Irish dish, it's an American-Irish dish," Tatman said. "In Ireland, the feast dinner would be pork, cured pork and ham. When they came over after the famine and they settled in New York, Chicago and other places like Boston, they settled near the Jewish families and the Jewish delicatessens, and they don't have any pork. So the Irish in America started taking corned beef or pastrami and that became the Irish-American dish."
"You go to Ireland today and the only place you'll see corned beef on the menu is were the tourists go," he added.
For Mattew "Skippy" Mauldin and other regulars of Paddy Malone's, the traditions begin the week before St. Patrick's Day when Mauldin takes the lead in the Jefferson City St. Patrick's Day parade, which was March 9.
For nearly 12 years, Mauldin, who now travels all the way from his home in Springfield, Illinois, has dressed as St. Patrick for both the parade and the St. Patrick's Day celebration at the pub.
"The parade day is much more special to those of us who are around all the time, even those who used to be around all the time and now can't be, so it's really a lot of hugs and a lot of Guinness and it's just a good time with a lot of great people," Mauldin said.
"We get a different crowd every year, but you always have the ones that come every year no matter what and that's really great. I've had people who have brought their kids in when they were babies to get the baby's picture with St. Patrick, and they're now teenagers and, it's like, how did that happen," he added.
The pub also hosts a countdown celebration every year the night before the big day. This includes a toast as the clock strikes midnight, but it also includes an Irish tune or two performed by Tatman as he plays his bodhran, an Irish frame drum.
This is also an opportunity for Tatman to use his knowledge and experiences to tell guests and friends a brief history of St. Patrick's Day and what it means for Irish-Americans.
Tatman said they try to be very respectful about traditions - a green beer has no place on Paddy Malone's menu.