St. Patrick"s Day started to build its massive worldwide reputation basically in 1737 when Boston became the first city outside of Ireland to host celebrations, which have become a common sight today on the 17th March all over the planet. In the Texas town of Shamrock it is the biggest day of the year, a multitude of Irish pubs everywhere experience their busiest and most jovial 24 hours and special green and black costumes illuminate cities in all continents. Nevertheless, there is one place where nearly all enthusiasts long to be on the 17th March and that is in Ireland.
Indeed, Ireland not only hosts its famous St. Patrick"s Day parade, yet it similarly has the biggest party of all. This is, of course, linked to the fact that Ireland has tipsier Irish fellows than can be found anywhere else. Traditional scenes of drinking and Irish dancing are accompanied by treasure hunts and night spectacles which cannot be encountered so easily elsewhere. It sometimes involves a 5-day spectacular whereby up to a million people participate and witness up to 4000 performers joining in the fun. This is why the old phrase "everybody wants to be Irish on St. Patrick"s Day" is so often heard.
This is not to say that it is impossible to celebrate elsewhere as New York regularly hosts over 2 million celebrators on its streets and in its bars and some place have even turned to more unusual methods of celebration. In recent years, master chefs have been coming to Boston in order to add a touch of culinary expertise to the event. Most typically, they arrive from Canada or Ireland itself. At the end of the day, the event of St. Patrick"s Day is so important to so many people everywhere that it is difficult to judge whether such originality is necessary in the first place.
