While many of us associate this holiday with our parents going out and drinking, or watching the parade on television, Saint Patrick’s Day is celebrated to remember the death of Saint Patrick.

This holiday started out as a religious feast, but over time has evolved into a collage of festivals, parades, special foods, music, dancing, and a whole bunch of green.

The start of Saint Patrick’s day dates back to 1631 when a church established a day of feast in the honor of St. Patrick since he’s the patron saint of Ireland.

Saint Patrick died around the 5th century and very little is known about who he actually was.

What we do know is that he was a Roman citizen that was enslaved and taken to Ireland. He then either escaped or was released.

He came back to Ireland with the name Patricius, derived from the Latin term for father and converted Druid culture into the Christians.

The Church always assigns certain flowers and plants with saints and they assign the famous shamrock to Saint Patrick.

Modern celebrations for this holiday started in 1762 with the first New York City parade.

The color green was not part of the day until 1798 when the Irish rebellion occurred. The color has been associated that with the day ever since.

In the late 20th century, Ireland repealed a law that initially kept all businesses closed, including bars and pubs.

Ever since a marketing push was made by Budweiser in the 1980s, people associate drinking and partying with this holiday instead of its actual meaning.

Many cities have their own ways of celebrating. While most just have a parade downtown, Chicago has a strange tradition of dying their rivers green for the day.

Pittsburgh’s parade is believed to be the second-largest, including 22,000 participants, 200 marching units, and the Largest Potato in the world.

The Saint Patrick’s day parade in Pittsburgh will be on Saturday and will be introducing Finn the Irish Wolfhound.

Finn will be marching along St. Patrick rather than the Pirate Parrot this year.

The motto for the parade is usually “rain, snow, or shine”. The weather has not stopped the parade since 1956 when it was canceled and people held a protest parade. The Pittsburgh parade even went on during the Great Blizzard of ‘93.

This year’s parade is going to be in honor of late chairman of the Pittsburgh Steelers.

And, if you are going to this year’s parade, dress warmly.