"La Fheile Padraig...more commonly knows as The Feast of Saint Patrick"

The Feast of Saint Patrick is celebrated on the traditional death date of the foremost patron saint of Ireland, March 17th.  For starters, Patrick was born into a wealthy Romano-British family from the Roman provence of Britania c.AD 385.  His father was a deacon and his grandfather was a priest in the Christian church.  At the age of 16, he was kidnapped by Irish raiders and taken as a slave to Gaelic Ireland.  During the 6 years of working as a shepherd he "found God" and managed to escape and find his way back to Britania.  According to tradition, Patrick returned to Ireland to convert the pagan Irish to Christianity.

Saint Patrick is often associated and credited with expelling the snakes out of Ireland.  This is just a metaphor for expelling the pagan beliefs and converting them to Christianity.  In addition, the shamrock was used to explain the Holy Trinity to the Irish pagans.

Time to grab an Irish beer or whisky, in my case both, and Slainte!