This article is in partnership with Day Translations.

Each year on the 17^th of March Saint Patrick’s Day is celebrated around the world.

“Lá fhéile Pádraig sona dhuit!” That means “Happy Saint Patrick’s Day to you!” in Gaelic or Irish.

It is pronounced “Law leh Paw-drig suna ghit”. If we break down this greeting, it is made of these components:

• “Lá Fhéile Pádraig” which means “St. Patrick’s Day”
• “Sona” which means “happy”
• “Dhuit” which means “to you” if you are addressing one person, or
• “daoibh” which means the plural “to you” if you are addressing a group of people.

The pronunciation of “you” or “daoibh” as plural is “yee-uv”.

The shamrock is the symbol of St. Patrick, who brought Christianity to Ireland and taught about the Holy Trinity by using the humble shamrock, which is made of three heart-shaped leaves.

Celebrating St. Patrick’s Day in Ireland

If you ever plan to travel to Ireland to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, which is a national holiday, you can look at a long list of events on the official Irish tourism board website.

Dublin gets a lot of media coverage and attention, which also means you must expect huge crowds (700,000 people are estimated to be attending), waiting in lines, traffic jams and so on. It is usually recommended to turn up to watch the parade at least two or three hours before the event starts. The celebrations extend beyond the parade as they go on for three whole days.

Each parade has its own Grand Marshal who leads the procession. For example, in Dublin the Grand Marshal is usually a well known Irish celebrity including actors and musicians.

There are more than a hundred alternative destinations in Ireland where you can experience St. Patrick’s Day and watch the colourful parades with music and dance include:

• Cork, where it has been estimated that more than 50,000 people will attend;
• Galway
• Kilkenny
• Wicklow
• Killarney
• Limerick
• Waterford.

Talking of Waterford, it was the first town in Ireland to start the tradition of having a parade to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, since 1903.

What to expect during a St. Patrick’s Day parade? Apart from the music and dancing, parades often feature floats, sometimes tractors, people on stilts, puppets, fire eaters and different communities including youth groups, team sports and international groups.

Where Is St Patrick’s Day Celebrated Outside Ireland?

The most popular places that have become famous for throwing elaborate St Patrick’s Day parades include New York, Boston and Chicago, where there are strong Irish communities. The New York parade is broadcast globally, attracting more than 8 million viewers.

There are also Ireland Week events scheduled around the world in places such as Madrid in Spain, Milan in Italy and Paris in France. For example in Madrid it is estimated that St. Patrick’s Day activities will bring in about 150,000 people.

Photo by Timothy Dykes on Unsplash