32 Pieces to Inspire Your St. Patrick's Day Outfit (2024)

FAQs

What you should wear on St. Patrick's Day? ›

Whether you're hitting the nearest Irish bar, going to the club, or making co*cktails at home, celebrate St Paddy's Day in chartreuse style. Wear a green crop top with jeans and sneakers for a casual look you'll love, or wear a jade jumpsuit with strappy heels for a classy night out look that will turn heads.

Patrick's Day tradition. While Ireland has plenty of folklore and mythology, Americans are also thought to have come up with the idea that green makes you invisible to leprechauns. According to the tradition, if you are not wearing green and therefore visible to the leprechauns, a leprechaun may wind up pinching you.

What to wear? Pretty much anything green is acceptable. Leprechaun attire, clovers, and green hats are highly recommended. Remember to be original and put your own touch on your outfit!

Dressing in green on St. Patrick's can trace its roots to leprechaun legends, as well as a sign of Irish defiance. Each year on St. Patrick's Day, tens of thousands of Americans add green to their outfits, even if they can't trace their ancestry back to the Emerald Isle.

Therefore, on St. Patrick's Day, Protestants protest by wearing orange instead of green. Ironically, no one wears white; the placement of the white stripe between the green and orange stripes on the Irish flag is supposed to symbolize the peace between the Roman Catholic majority and the Protestant minority.

Some are Protestant. While the Irish Catholic tradition is associated with the color green, Protestants associate with the color orange because of William of Orange, the Protestant king who overthrew Roman Catholic King James the second in the Glorious Revolution.

Both green and orange are represented in the Irish flag to illustrate the peaceful coexistence of Catholics and Protestants, so both green and orange could be considered St. Patrick's Day colors. But you still probably shouldn't wear orange, as it represents loyalty to the English.

(Some ancient Irish flags even sport this color.) Green was finally introduced to St. Patrick's Day festivities in the 18th century, when the shamrock (which is, of course, green) became a national symbol. Because of the shamrock's popularity and Ireland's landscape, the color stuck to the holiday.

Patrick's Day's visual identity is one simply associated with the color green. However, green isn't representative of the holiday to everyone. In fact, for a select group of celebrators, the color most associated with the day is actually orange!

Over time, green was adopted as the color of the Irish rebellion—and the shamrock became a key symbol. The Irish flag is three blocks of color—green, white, and orange. Green represents the Catholics who rebelled against protestant England. Orange, on the other hand, represents Protestants—who do not venerate saints.

What color is a leprechaun? ›

The most likely explanation for the modern day Leprechaun appearance is that green is a traditional national Irish color dating back as far as 1642. The hat might be derived from the style of outdated fashion still common in Ireland in the 19th century.

While trying to convert the Irish into Christians, St. Patrick used the shamrock to explain the holy trinity with each leaf representing the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The three leaves of a shamrock are also said to stand for faith, hope and love. A fourth leaf is where we get the luck from.

Today, the color green and the shamrock symbol are now the main symbols used when talking about St. Patrick's Day. However, it was the color blue that played a large part in defining the cultural history of Ireland. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media Inc.

People began pinching those who didn't wear green as a reminder that leprechauns would sneak up and pinch green-abstainers. Rules for wearing green on St. Patrick's Day: There aren't any official rules.

Each year on St. Patrick's Day, whether Irish or not, we find ourselves dressing in green. Kids will dress in green for school, there are parades and parties with people decked out in their green apparel.