Today is St Patrick’s Day! Although it is not my favorite holiday, I enjoy really enjoy holiday. It is a time when Irish music is played, wearing green is common, and celebrating Ireland and it’s culture is at the forefront for a day. Despite this, there are many things that are more commonly associated with the holiday I don’t always enjoy. Drinking alcohol is the biggest one.

Even though I am not Irish, over the years I have figured out ways to celebrate the holiday without needing to drink alcohol. Some are simple while others are more complicated, but they can all can be budget friendly or more lavish. For this post, I picked five of my most common and favorite ways to celebrate the holiday.

Wear Something Green

Wearing something green is probably the most common way to celebrate St Patrick’s Day. Even though green is not a color everyone enjoys wearing, many people wear it on St Patrick’s Day anyway. If you don’t want to wear a lot of green or want to avoid looking too campy, then consider more subtitle ways to work green into your outfit for the day. Since I am a woman with hair longer than my shoulders, so I sometimes like to wear a green headband, clip, hair ties, or bows for the holiday.

 

Eat Irish Pub Food

Eating Irish pub food is a fun way to celebrate St Patricks’ Day. Sadly, not everyone lives close enough to a restaurant that offers Irish pub food. Instead, there are ways to eat them at home. Do research into traditional pub food and recipes for them. Certain foods are more complicated to make than others, which is why planning ahead is important. My favorite pub food to make are fish and chips (Fish and french fries) and chicken pot pie.

 

Listen to Irish Traditional (Or Trad) Music, Irish Themed Music, or Music By Irish Artists

If wearing green or eating pub food isn’t your style, then consider listening to Irish music. There are different types of music to listen to including traditional music (Better known as Irish Trad music), Irish themed music, and music by Irish Artists. Irish Trad music is similar in style to the music of Riverdance. Irish themed music is what I call music that may not be officially Irish Trad music, but covers of theme are in the style of Trad music. One of the biggest groups that perform this type of music is Celtic Women. Finally, if none of the types of music strikes your fancy, then try to listen to music by Irish artists. They include Sting, Sinead O’Conner, and Ed Sheeran.

 

Learn More About Ireland

One of the easiest and possibly cheapest ways to celebrate St Patrick’s Day is to learn about Ireland. This could be anything from reading books about the history of Ireland to watching travel shows to listening to podcasts about the history of Ireland. Learning about Ireland this can be as inexpensive or as intensive as you want it to be.

 

Attend a St Patrick’s Day Parade or Family Oriented Festivals

This is one of my favorite ways to celebrate St Patrick’s Day! There are parades and festivals in all shapes and sizes held in honor of this holiday. Just make sure to do some research into the parades and festivals. This way you will know how big they will be and if there are any important things to note before attending.

 

That’s all for now! Thank you for reading!

 

Featured Image by Quentin Rey on Unsplash.