MARCH 17 - HAPPY ST PATRICKS DAY
Saint Patrick's feast day, as a kind of national day, was already being celebrated by the Irish in Europe in the ninth and tenth centuries. Saint Patrick's feast day was finally placed on the liturgical calendar of the Catholic Church in the early 1600s, due to the influence of Waterford-born Franciscan scholar Luke Wadding. Saint Patrick's Day thus became a holy day of obligation for Catholics in Ireland. It is also a feast day in the Church of Ireland, part of the Anglican Communion. The church calendar avoids the observance of saints' feasts during certain solemnities, moving the saint's day to a time outside those periods. Saint Patrick's Day is occasionally affected by this requirement, when 17 March falls during Holy Week. This happened in 1940, when Saint Patrick's Day was officially observed on 3 April to avoid it coinciding with Palm Sunday, and again in 2008, where it was officially observed on 15 March .Saint Patrick's Day will not fall within Holy Week again until 2160. However, the popular festivities may still be held on 17 March or on a weekend near to the feast day.
Saint Patrick's was perceived as the middle day of spring in the Irish calendar. People expected that weather would be improved following the festival, and farmers would begin planting potato.[