Happy St. Patrick's Day, everybody! What began as the celebration surrounding the patron saint of Ireland has morphed into a worldwide salute to Irish culture (or at least the perception of Irish culture). As the story goes, Saint Patrick was a priest who came to Ireland in the early fifth century to convert Irish royalty and aristocracy to Christianity. Irish folklore says that he used the shamrock as a visual tool to teach people about the Holy Trinity (the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit), which is where the imagery of the shamrock comes from (and lead directly to the McDonald's Shamrock Shake).
People will celebrate St. Patrick's Day today with parades, traditional Irish food (most notably corned beef and cabbage) and more than a little festive imbibing of spirits. Like any festive holiday, it requires an appropriate batch of tunes to fuel the celebration. Hence the St. Patrick's Day video playlist, which raises a glass to Irish culture with songs about canonization (Down's "On March the Saints"), the color green ("Green Light" by John Legend, Cypress Hill's "Dr. Greenthumb"), parades (Michael McDonald's "Lost in the Parade") and drinking (Dolla's "Make a Toast," Ludacris' "One More Drink").
The playlist also contains a healthy dose of music from some of Ireland's best bands, like U2 ("New Year's Day"), the Corrs ("When the Stars Go Blue"), Snow Patrol ("Run") and My Bloody Valentine ("Only Shallow"). The whole thing kicks off with "Macy's Day Parade," which not only is a song about a parade (there's probably one going on outside your window right now) but is also a track by Green Day, making it a St. Patrick's Day double whammy!
How will you celebrate St. Patrick's Day today? Let us know in the comments!