St Patrick's Day Worldwide and St Patrick Who Supposedly Banished Snakes

 St Patrick's Day has been celebrated worldwide. I have seen green in the pond beside the White House in the USA.

 Parades have been held in Chicago, USA, and Montreal, Canada. New York has a St Patrick's cathedral.

Naturally, St Patrick's Day is celebrated in Northern Ireland which has the statue of St Patrick on a hilltop in Saul. Green is the colour for the celebration worldwide.

St Patrick established Christianity in Ireland. Many church windows show St Patrick. At least one shows him banishing snakes. The story goes that St Patrick banished the snakes from Ireland which is why you don't have snakes in Ireland. An archaeologist established that, indeed, since the time of St Patrick there have been no snakes. But she also found no fossils of snakes from before the time of St Patrick. As the saying goes, why let the truth get in the way of a good story.

Up north in Belfast, capital of Northern Ireland, the Titanic Belfast Museum, about the building and sinking of the Titanic ship, was bathed in green coloured light.

Down in Dublin, capital of the Republic of Ireland, celebrations feature the Irish flag, which is green, white and orange. Their dream is of reuniting with Northern Ireland. That is why their flag includes the orange colour of William of Orange, who was the king of UK and Northern Ireland. His ancestors came from Anjer in France. Nothing to do with oranges. But the word sounds like oranges in English. So by accident at first and eventually by choice the name became pronounced as orange with the orange colour to match the name.

Indians and others living in Asia see similarities between the flag of India and the flag of Ireland. Both have the colours green, white and orange. The Irish flag has three vertical bands or blocks of colour. The Indian flag has the colour horizontal, with the addition of a lozenge in the middle.

Singapore

Singapore has a Molly Malone pub. You can enjoy the Irish atmosphere all year.

Belize

Belize used to be called British Honduras and still has a British garrison. Among the British troop were some Irish troops who had enjoyed Irish food and drink in the canteen and bar. Some of the Irish soldiers retired and stayed on in the country they had lived in for years and where they felt at home. Guinness is manufactured locally, officially, under license. On St Patricks Day the locals enjoy celebrating, any excuse for a party, says my friend from Belize, Edward,but more than that, they even enjoy kilts and pipes.

The British royals, Kate and William, arrived in Belize (part of a visit around the area which would include Jamaica) in late March. On their itinerary were the popular tourist sites of the former governor's house, now the House of Culture and Museum. Out a sea, you see the Great Barrier Reef, and the Blue Hole.