St. Patrick’s Day Promotions

St. Patrick’s Day Promotions From Bagwell Promotions

Saint Patrick’s Day, while not a legal holiday in the United States, is nonetheless widely recognized and observed throughout the country as a celebration of Irish and Irish-American culture. Celebrations include prominent displays of the color green, religious observances, numerous parades, and lots of beer or other alcohol.

With the COVID-19 Crisis, celebrations this year will not have the crowded conditions of previous years.  However, there are still opportunities for businesses to tie in a promotion.  Plus, many individuals will celebrate at home or in much smaller gathering places.

We have placed on this page some of our most popular products. Keep in mind that almost any promo item in emerald green can have a custom imprint for St. Patrick’s Day.

Selected St. Patrick’s Day Promotions

St. Patrick’s Day Promotions

History of St. Patrick

Saint Patrick was a 5th-century Romano-British Christian missionary and bishop in Ireland. Much of what is known about Saint Patrick comes from the Declaration, allegedly written by Patrick himself. It is believed that he was born in the fourth century into a wealthy family. His father was a deacon, and his grandfather was a priest in the Christian church. According to the Declaration, at the age of sixteen, he was kidnapped by Irish raiders and taken as a slave to Gaelic Ireland, where he spent six years there working as a shepherd and that during this time he “found God.” The Declaration says that God told Patrick to flee to the coast, where a ship would be waiting to take him home. After making his way home, Patrick went on to become a priest.

According to tradition, Patrick returned to Ireland to convert the pagan Irish to Christianity. The Declaration says that he spent many years evangelizing in the northern half of Ireland and converted “thousands.” Patrick’s efforts against the druids were eventually turned into an allegory in which he drove “snakes” out of Ireland, even though snakes were not known to inhabit the region.

Tradition holds that he died on 17 March and was buried at Downpatrick. Over the following centuries, many legends grew up around Patrick, and he became Ireland’s foremost saint.

Today’s Saint Patrick’s Day celebrations have been greatly influenced by those developed among the Irish diaspora, especially in North America. Until the late 20th century, Saint Patrick’s Day was often a bigger celebration among the diaspora than in Ireland.

Celebrations generally involve public parades and festivals, Irish traditional music sessions, and green attire or shamrocks. There are also formal gatherings such as banquets and dances, although these were more common in the past. Saint Patrick’s Day parades began in North America in the 18th century but did not spread to Ireland until the 20th century. The participants generally include marching bands, the military, fire brigades, cultural organizations, charitable organizations, voluntary associations, youth groups, fraternities, etc. However, over time, many of the parades have become more akin to a carnival. More effort is made to use the Irish language, especially in Ireland, where the week of Saint Patrick’s Day is “Irish language week.”

Wearing of green

On Saint Patrick’s Day, it is customary to wear shamrocks, green clothing, or green accessories. Saint Patrick is said to have used the shamrock, a three-leaved plant, to explain the Holy Trinity to the pagan Irish. This story first appears in writing in 1726, though it may be older. In pagan Ireland, three was a significant number, and the Irish had many triple deities, which may have aided St Patrick in his evangelization efforts. Patricia Monaghan says there is no evidence that the shamrock was sacred to the pagan Irish.

The color green was further associated with Ireland when the Irish Catholic Confederation used the green harp flag.  Green ribbons and shamrocks have been worn on St Patrick’s Day since at least the 1680s.^[ The Friendly Brothers of St Patrick, an Irish fraternity founded in about 1750, adopted green as its color. However, when the Order of St. Patrick—an Anglo-Irish chivalric order—was founded in 1783, it adopted blue as its color, which led to blue being associated with St Patrick. During the 1790s, green would become associated with Irish nationalism due to its use by the United Irishmen.