just the mere utterance of the glorious day, probably evokes images like...

The question is, St. Patrick's Day, how did we get here?

So, we decided to ask an expert in everything St. Patrick,

the rector of St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City.

We go nice conversation.

Date's been affected. The official feast day in the Catholic Church of St. Patrick of Ireland is March 17th.

That's why it's always celebrated here in New York on the 17th itself.

In Ireland, it's a holy day of obligation of the people at Catholic church.

It's amazing. It started before there was in the United States at George Washington's troops,

who were Irish at the time, marched up Broadway on the 17th of March.

They celebrated the first St. Patrick's Day in New York,

and over the years the parade started to be formed by different Irish groups,

so now St. Patrick's Day Parade in New York is the biggest in the world.

In front of the cathedral every year the parade marches, and it's just filled with people of every group, every ethnicity,

fans from all over the world, a lot of bagpipes, a lot of green. It's a great day.

Speaking of all that green, where did that come from and a couple of those other traditions that we know and love?

I remember the first time I went to Ireland, and I came in on the plane and looked at the window,

and I looked down and sure enough they say forty shades of green. It was forty shades of green.

I think part of the Irish culture is to eat, drink, and be merry, so I think that was always connected with St. Patrick's Day,

and maybe when young people got involved, it got a little more raucous and a little more drinking than is necessarily good.

But finally the most important part of the fabled day, according to Monsignor Ritchie?

Everybody says they become Irish on St. Patrick's Day.

You don't have to be Irish to celebrate St. Patrick's Day.