Unlike the other holidays we celebrate here in the United States, St. Patrick’s Day is a little more unique, which makes the parties a lot different to plan but also a lot more interesting. First of all, to plan the most authentic St. Patrick’s Day party, you have to start with the color green. Green is hard to be not seen in any St. Patrick’s Day celebration.  On this day, every street corner will have green. Believe it or not, Chicago dyes its river every single year to celebrate this day. If the Windy City can dye its entire river green, it is going to be easy for you to turn your own house party into a green celebration.

Every great party has great decorations, so let’s start with incorporating green into the decorations. First, light your house with green so everyone will have no doubt what the party is for. You can do it with green Christmas lights, which are sold all year round and all over the internet nowadays (well, what isn’t all over the web nowadays?). Next, put up green cutouts of shamrocks and leprechauns on the walls and in the windows to show what St. Patrick’s Day is all about. You can put up several green balloons to cap off your green decorations. Decorate your tables with green tablecloths, napkins, cups, and serve food in plastic leprechaun hats. Green can also be in foods, drinks, and clothes. For starters, set a green dress code for the party and encourage your party to mix up their colorful green outfits. Plus, you can serve food and drinks, like green M&Ms, green cookies, chips with guacamole and, of course, green Jell-O shots.

The truth is that all parties must have great entertainment and beverages. This Irish celebration is no different. To put the final authentic Irish on it, serve the beer that is truly the pride of Ireland: Gunniess. Then, for entertainment, put on some classic Irish pub songs and organize a limerick contest in which the winner will get a silly green prize. All the ideas listed above will make a great authentic Irish celebration and will make this holiday memorable.

The name comes from the Gaelic words bairin breac, meaning speckled loaf. Some sources say “barm” actually comes from “beorma”, referring to liquid yeast. Monica Sheridan, in The Art of Irish Cooking, writes “It is the only surviving example of the use of yeast in our traditional cooking.” Wikipedia tells us the yeast for the bread may have come off the top of fermenting beer. This yeast was guaranteed to be live, after all.

At Halloween, barm brack was baked with small objects scattered in the dough. Whatever turned up in your slice was supposed to foretell the big event of your coming year (Halloween being the old Celtic New Year’s Eve): A toy ring for marriage, a rag for losing your shirt, and so forth.

I decided to start with Monica Sheridan’s recipe, adapt it for a smaller scale and a bread machine — and have a little non-traditional fun with it. Instead of currants, sultana raisins, and candied fruit peel, I used dried apple slices, dried apricots, and candied green cherries for the colors of the Irish flag.

First, chop to the size of raisins, by hand or in a food processor:

3 tablespoons candied green cherries
3/4 cup dried apricots
1/2 cup dried apple slices

Set your bread machine on “dough” and put in, with the milk, egg and butter going first:

1/2 cup plus two tablespoons milk
1 egg
1 tablespoon butter
4 cups flour
sprinkling of salt
the chopped fruit
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tablespoon sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons yeast

When the cycle is finished, put the dough in a buttered pan — I used a 5-inch cast-iron skillet, but anything about that size would do — and bake at 400 for about 20 minutes, or until a knife stuck in the middle comes out clean. Next time, I may use a large tin can, as the more traditional shape seems to be a cylinder you can cut into round slices.

But, as I mentioned earlier, tradition wasn’t what I was going for this time.

Making shamrocks can be quite simple.  If you’ve ever looked at a shamrock carefully, you’ll notice that the body of it can be made with three green hearts.  Add a stem, and your shamrock is complete.  Of course, there’s more than one way to make a shamrock.  Here are a few of our suggestions:

1. Construction paper

Using green construction paper, draw 3 hearts (or use a stencil).  Cut out the hearts and an appropriately sized stem.  Place a small amount of glue on the point of one heart.  Place the point of another heart on top of the glue, laying it so that the hearts are facing in opposite directions.  Put glue on the point of the second heart, and place the point of the third heart on the glue.  This heart should fill make the top of the shamrock.  Place glue on the top heart’s point, and attach the stem.  Allow glue to dry.

2. Paint

Start with a piece of white paper (printer paper, construction paper, etc.).  Use green paint and a brush to draw three heart to create a shamrock.  You also can use a heart stamp or sponge to create the shamrock.  If using a sponge, before painting, fill sponge with water and squeeze out water, so that sponge is damp.  (This will prevent you wasting paint that the sponge soaks up.) Add a stem, and your shamrock is complete.

3. Glitter

If you’re feeling brave, give glitter and glue a try.  Use a sturdier piece of paper, such as construction paper or poster board, as glitter is heavy.  Decide if you want to use a little glitter or a lot.  For a minor glitter shamrock, draw the outlines of three hearts and a stem to create a shamrock.  For a major glitter shamrock, draw and fill in three hearts and a stem to create a shamrock.  Sprinkle glitter on glue, and shake off excess glitter.

Corned Beef

1.  Make reubens.  All you need is some rye or pumpernickel bread, sauerkraut (or leftover cooked cabbage), swiss cheese, thousand island dressing, and corned beef.  Assemble the ingredients between two slices of bread, butter the outer sides of the bread, and grill in a frying pan until both sides are golden brown and the cheese is melted.

2.  Make hash.  This is a great side dish for breakfast.  Not only does this use some of your leftover corned beef, it also uses leftover potatoes.  Click here for the recipe.

Potatoes

1. Make potato pancakes.  Place leftover potatoes in an appropriately sized mixing bowl and add a small amount of milk.  Mash potatoes, adding more milk if needed.  Season with salt and pepper.  Heat a nonstick frying pan over medium heat.  Form 2 tablespoons of mashed potatoes into a patty, coat pan with a small amount of oil or butter, and place pancake in pan.  Cook until golden brown on both sides.

2. Make homefries.  Cover bottom of nonstick frying pan with canola oil, and place over medium heat.  When oil is hot, add cubed potatoes.  Cook until brown and crisp.  Drain on paper towels, if desired.

Official Website: St. Patrick’s Day Parade – South Boston
Location: Broadway, South Boston, MA
Date: Sunday, March 14, 2010
Hours: Parade starts at 1:00pm
Ages: Toddlers, Kids, Teens, Adults
In/Outdoor: Outdoor

Are you getting excited for St. Patrick’s Day? Now that the pinks and reds have been cleared from stores all over the country, the green has started its infestation. As a young girl, I usually tried to catch leprechauns in homemade traps. I must say, some of my traps were pretty ingenious, but I still have yet to capture one!

Myths and decorations aside, an event that Greater Boston Area residents should attend is the St. Patrick’s Day parade. This parade has been making history ever since it started back in 1901, and every year it draws more than 500,000 visitors to Boston. It is a ton of fun for children, teenagers, and adults. Everyone is always so dressed up, the parade is awesome, and there are festivities going on everywhere!

The parade starts at the Broadway ‘T’ Station and ends at Andrew Square, South Boston. To see the parade at its finest, you probably are going to want to watch the parade from a spot anywhere along Broadway. As written above, the parade starts at 1:00 pm. It will feature marching bands and pipe bands from throughout North America, food, drinks, and more. The festivities, of course, are not just during the parade; Boston celebrates prior to the day of and continues after the parade as well. What also helps is that it is the Sunday before St. Patrick’s Day– rather than the one after it. However, I doubt that celebrating the holiday would not really be an issue in the city of Boston.

Visit this site to learn more about a couple of events that you should try to attend this St. Patrick’s Day weekend. Some of their attractions include Irish Punk music brought to you by the Dropkick Murphys at the House of Blues, an Open House hosted by the Irish Cultural Centre, and St. Patrick’s Day at the JFK Library and Museum. These are just some of the events that the city of Boston is bringing to you!

Tasty Food and Drinks
Green colored cakes, pies, and cookies are always a great option, but don’t be afraid to think outside the box! Try Irish soda bread or toffee shortbread, both of which are authentic Irish recipes. These recipes are fairly easy to make plus your kids will probably want to help you bake. You could plan an entire Irish themed meal for dinner or lunch. Think a corned beef pizza (which would be a child-friendly version of the classic corned beef and cabbage), coddle (made of potatoes, bacon, and sausage), and a key lime pie. Just add a tall glass of iced limeade or perhaps a green mint milkshake.

Fun Crafts
Since St Paddy’s Day falls on a Wednesday, give your kids something fun to come home to after school or the weekend before. Try having them make green shamrocks out of construction or stock paper. Another great idea is to purchase some blank wooden frames, non-toxic artist pants in various colors, including green, and some paint brushes so they can paint their own frames to keep and use.

Game Ideas
Try a fun Irish themed treasure hunt. Buy a large green box with a lid (or a large wooden box that you can decorate yourself), and store a few gifts inside. The gifts can be small, and don’t necessarily have to be Irish related. You can use toys, books, or candy. Hide it somewhere in the backyard. Write clues on green shamrock shaped Post-it style notes, and hide them in various parts of the backyard. Have the children look for the hidden treasure box and find the clues that will lead them to it. If you want, you can invite some neighborhood kids to join in and make a party of it. At the end of the party, you can serve them something special like a slice of Irish soda bread and a glass of limeade.

• Individuals of Irish heritage wear green on Saint Patrick’s Day as an ode to the lush green countryside of Ireland. They participate in festivities in order to honor the memory of Saint Patrick and also to show their love of Ireland to the rest of the world.

• The largest (and longest in duration) Saint Patrick’s Day parade in the world is held in New York City every year. Leading the parade are the mascots of the New York National Guard infantry regiment (also known as the Fighting 69th), which are two Irish wolfhounds. The dogs are followed by more than 100 bands and 100,000 marchers.

• The Chicago River is dyed green on Saint Patrick’s Day as a tribute to the holiday.

• In Dublin there is a Saint Patrick’s Day festival that runs from March 15 to 19 and features a parade, a dance, family carnivals, treasure hunts, theatre, etc.

• Boston, Massachusetts, has held a parade every year since 1737.

• The longest running Saint Patrick’s Day parade in Canada is held in Montreal, Quebec. This parade got its start in 1824.

• The symbol for Ireland is the harp. The color green has become synonymous with Ireland, as it is often referred to as “the Emerald Isle.”

• The flag of Ireland is made up of three colors- green, orange and white. Green stands for the people of the south while orange represents the people of the north. White stands for peace and unity as a nation.

• The population of Ireland is 4.1 million.

• An estimated 34 million American citizens have Irish ancestry.

• There are many towns in the United States that have Irish names. Some of these include Shamrock, Oklahoma, Dublin, California, and Shamrock Lakes, Indiana.

• According to legend, every leaf on a clover stands for something. The first leaf is for hope, the second for faith, the third for love and the fourth for (No surprise here!) luck.

• It is estimated that for every four-leaf clover (the lucky one) there are 10,000 three-leaf clovers in existence.

When it comes to Saint Patrick’s Day, are you up on your trivia? If you could use a brush up then keep reading …

-Saint Patrick’s Day is celebrated on March 17th every year.

-In Ireland it is a holy day and a national holiday.

-Although it is standard to wear the color green on Saint Patrick’s Day in the United States, the color was long regarded as unlucky in Ireland because it was the color favored by the Good People (also known as faeries). Faeries often stole from citizens, and folklore held that individuals who wore too much green would be stolen by the faeries (in particular children).

-Saint Patrick’s Day is celebrated worldwide as a tribute to Irish culture and history.

-The first Saint Patrick’s Day parade in the world was held in New York City on March 17, 1762.

-Although Dublin (the capital of Ireland) has a Saint Patrick’s Day parade every year, often touted as the Irish Mardi Gras, the one held in New York City is the largest.

Who was Saint Patrick and why is there a holiday named after him?

Saint Patrick was the patron saint of Ireland who brought Christianity to the Irish people. St Patrick (Patricius in Latin) was born in Britain in 385 AD. When he was 16 years of age he was kidnapped and sold into slavery. He escaped six years later at the age of 22 and went to Gaul (present day France). He eventually returned to his parents’ residence in Britain. It was here that he had a vision that he would preach Christianity to the Irish.

Saint Patrick studied theology for 14 years and then returned to Ireland in his mid-30s and began to spread the word of God to the Irish people. He built many churches throughout his years of service and helped many people by bringing Christian faith into their lives.

Legend has it that the shamrock became synonymous with this Irish holiday because Saint Patrick used it to help teach people about God. Looking very much like a clover with three leaves on each stem, he used it to describe the Trinity in that it was composed of three divine beings- the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit (or Holy Ghost).

Saint Patrick died on March 17, 461 AD, and is buried at Downpatrick in Northern Ireland.