Quote Originally Posted by mrpharr View Post
Stolen from Wikipedia for lazy people like me...
Saint Patrick's Day (Irish: Lá 'le Pádraig or Lá Fhéile Pádraig), colloquially Paddy's Day or St. Patty's Day, is the feast day which annually celebrates Saint Patrick (373-493), the patron saint of Ireland, on March 17.
Ah yes, Wikapedia, the death of human intelligence. St. Patrick is one of three Saints who are Patron Saints of Ireland and his day deserves to be recognized as the Feast of St. Patrick and not St Paddy. The other two, of course are St. Columba and St. Brigid. While the Irish Padraig may be shortened to Paddy in Ireland, it is not appropriate in the states to shorten Patrick to Paddy. Before it became an excuse to abuse the Irish culture the Feast of St. Patrick was one of two Feast days in the Catholic church during the Lenten period with the other being the Feast of St. Joseph on March 19th. Things have changed over the years but these were the two days of feasting for a long time during a period of contemplations and self denial.

Sorry, didn't mean to get religious about things but it's a lot of how I was raised. Mods, you can delete if you think it's inappropriate.