Why do people wear green on Saint Patrick's Day?

Wearing the Green

Here are some suggested explanations:

• "The colors of the Republic of Ireland are a tricolor of green, white, and orange. The orange supposedly represents the Protestant population, the green the Catholic, and the white the peace between them. (Let's just leave Northern Ireland out of this.) Protestants don't celebrate saint's days. So the wearing of green is a symbol of Saint Patrick's day and then Ireland, the Emerald Isle, in general. The day as a holiday with parades, green beer etc. is more of an American tradition than Irish, and of course on St. Paddy's day everyone is Irish."

• One of the reasons that one wears green on St. Patrick's Day is because the Catholic side of Ireland is identified with green, and St. Patrick is a Catholic Saint credited with converting the island to Christianity. Whereas the Protestants are identified with orange, and are often called "Orangemen", as in King William the Orange. The clashes in Ireland between the Catholics and Protestants are often clashes of the green and the orange. The irony is that the Irish flag, is supposed to represent the unity of the two with the white between the two colors represnting unity. The traditional pinching of a person who wears orange on St. Patrick's Day is a mild form of the violence that has so often occured in the past as both factions have had St. Patrick's Day marches/parades.

• In Ireland there is actually very little preference to green at the parades, maybe a few novelty hats but not much more. Wearing green is an American thing.
• So they don't get pinched silly.

Answer

I don't know why the wearing of certain colors originated, but in Ireland, you only wear green if you are Catholic. Protestants all wear orange. The US does not observe this tradition.

First answer by ID3486020742. Last edit by Stpat. Contributor trust: 17 [recommend contributor]. Question popularity: 153 [recommend question]