Saint Patrick's Day Survival Guide

Saint Patrick's Day is upon us. St. Patrick's day is always celebrated on March 17th. March 17th is the celebrated feast day of St. Patrick. So get out your sack of spuds and get cooking. Corned beef and cabbage is fabulous but, until Saint Patrick Day is declared a national holiday, you'll probably not have time cook such a fine meal. My advice is any kind of beef will do, but for the love of god, you have to have loads of spuds! The spuds are a staple Irish food and they make a nice starchy base before hitting the pubs.

Who was St. Patrick, The patron sainr of Ireland?

Did you know Saint Patrick was a great storyteller and preacher? Saint Patrick's Day is the perfect time to get your bla ey on whether you're Irish or not. St. Patrick's Day isn't just about drinking the legal or illegal limit of a thick and hearty Irish brew; it's about making new friends. That should be easy, since as Irish men we have been blessed with the gift of the gab. So I highly recommend striking up a conversation with someone and if you're not Irish find an Irishman to talk to on St. Patty's Day. As you know, we Irishmen love a good story and we Irishmen never tell a lie. Well, least not when we're sober but after we've had a few pints we start spinning the bla ey for sure.

Us Irishmen, we are a proud bunch and we love to boast about our cultural contributions like the claddagh ring. May I suggest that you brush up on Irish quotes from Irish poets and authors like Oscar Wilde, James Joyce, Yeats, Shaw, and Jonathan Swift. And it couldn't hurt to read Thomas Cahill's book "How the Irish Saved Civilization."

Your might want to rest up your vocal cords as well. Upload on your iPod a week before St. Pat's some Irish favorites like U2, Van Morrison, Saw Doctors, Dropkick Murphy's, and The Pogues. We Irish love to sing and we all think we are really good at it after having a pint or two. But whatever you do, do not start singing Danny Boy or else you be ending your evening early.

So why do you have to wear green on St. Patrick's Day?

On Saint Patrick's Day there is nothing more sacred then "the wearing of the green" meaning to wear a shamrock on one's clothing, a piece of Irish jewelry with a shamrock like a shamrock brooch or to wear green clothing symbolic of the shamrock. Saint Patrick used the shamrock, a three-leaved plant, to explain the Holy Trinity to the Celts. The shamrock has since become a symbol of Ireland and good luck. So make sure you are wearing green on St. Patrick's Day lest you be pinched by a mischievous Leprechaun.

So on that note, I wish you a successful St. Patrick's Day. After all, "Success is a science; if you have the conditions, you get the result"—Oscar Wilde. Remember everybody is Irish on St Patrick's Day, but only a few of us are lucky enough to be Irish all the time. So may your joys be deep and many, may your heart be light and glad, may you have the best St Patrick's Day that you have ever had.