St. Patrick's Day is celebrated throughout the world, wherever there are Irish descendants. Each country has a unique form of celebrating St. Patrick's Day, and Ireland is no different. St. Patrick's Day is Ireland 's national holiday. A national holiday celebration involves the whole nation celebrating its culture, its heritage, and a grand form of communitas throughout the country. The holiday is in honor of the Catholic St. Patrick, so it is also a religious celebration, especially in Ireland . This religious celebration is what brings the strong sense of communitas to the nation through events like parades, concerts, and dressing similarly. The strong communitas can be seen in places like Northern Ireland , where Protestants and Catholics have been involved in a war over control of the territory. This war lasted twenty five years until a cease fire was enacted by both sides in 1995. The Protestant and Catholic groups have just recently begun to decommission their weapons. The point being, Catholics, Protestants, and their children were celebrating St. Patrick's Day side by side barely six months after the cease fire agreement (Darnton). The celebration of St. Patrick is extremely social because Patrick is the country's patron saint (Turner). The image the Irish have of Patrick is localization and a concrete image of God, giving His attributes to the nation (MacDonald). This being the case, the holiday is taken quite seriously in Ireland because the people do not want to tarnish the image of God. St. Patrick's Day is almost entirely a public celebration. The Irish usually attend mass in the mornings, spending time with family and friends, and parades and other festivities in the afternoon and into the night (Gove). Larger celebrations sometimes continue beyond March 17 th and culminate with a fireworks display. The systematic celebration of St. Patrick's Day takes place with religious rituals such as attending mass, confessions, prayer, and even a pilgrimage. These rituals enforce the beliefs of the Catholic Church and Ireland that Patrick evangelized the Irish people when he converted them to Catholicism in the fifth century.

  St. Patrick's Day also has many social realms to it as well. The celebration falls on March 17 th every year, which is the middle of the month. March is often referred to as the “March Hill,” meaning the first half is a difficult climb and the second half an easier walk down the hill. Another way to phrase this would be that March “comes in like a lion, out like a lamb.” These traditional sayings apply to many aspects of the nation. For example, St. Patrick's Day marks the end of cold weather, allowing the people to come outside and celebrate in the warmer weather. The coming of St. Patrick's Day also tells the farmers that they can begin to work in their fields and prepare the crop (MacDonald).

  Another religious aspect of St. Patrick's Day is that the celebration falls during the Catholic season of Lent. During Lent, Catholics traditionally fast and do not indulge themselves. The large percentage of Catholics in Ireland makes this ritual a very crucial part of March. St. Patrick's Day presents a break to Lent where the people are allowed to eat and drink their fill in Patrick's name. The act of eating and drinking is referred to as “Drowning the Shamrock,” which means to drink or go drinking in honor of the shamrock on St. Patrick's Day. “Drowning the Shamrock” has been a documented practice in Ireland on St. Patrick's Day for over a hundred years (MacDonald).

  However, the scope of the St. Patrick's Day celebration in Ireland has been changing in recent times. As a result of the serious religious nature of St. Patrick's Day in Ireland , most, if not all, Irish people enjoyed St. Patrick's Day sober. Bars used to be closed throughout the cities in order to recognize the religious holiday. Not until recently has the celebration taken on more American traditions, such as drinking alcohol to excess, having a giant party all day, in the bars and in the streets (Binchy). Not all American St. Patrick's Day traditions have been adopted, though. The practice of drinking green colored beer has not caught on in Ireland like it has in America . One Irish government official noted that he has “never seen anyone in Ireland drink green beer” (Gove).