Saint Patrick's Day Trivia Quiz Questions With Answers

Trivia quiz with answers about Saint Patrick's Day

Saint Patricks Day Trivia Quiz Questions With Answers

What is Saint Patrick's Day?
A: Saint Patrick's Day, or the Feast of Saint Patrick is a cultural and religious celebration held on March 17, the traditional death date of Saint Patrick (c. AD 385–461), the foremost patron saint of Ireland.

When was Saint Patrick's Day made an official Christian feast day?
A: In the early 17th century.

It is observed by what religious organizations?
A: The Catholic Church, the Anglican Communion (especially the Church of Ireland), the Eastern Orthodox Church, and the Lutheran Church.

The day commemorates Saint Patrick and the arrival of Christianity in Ireland, and celebrates what?
A: The heritage and culture of the Irish in general.

Celebrations generally involve what?
A: Public parades and festivals, cèilidhs, and the wearing of green attire or shamrocks.

Christians who belong to liturgical denominations also do what?
A: Attend church services and historically the Lenten restrictions on eating and drinking alcohol were lifted for the day, which has encouraged and propagated the holiday's tradition of alcohol consumption.

Where is Saint Patrick's Day a public holiday?
A: In the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland, the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador (for provincial government employees), and the British Overseas Territory of Montserrat.

It is also widely celebrated by the Irish diaspora around the world, especially where?
A: In the United Kingdom, Canada, United States, Brazil, Argentina, Australia and New Zealand.

Saint Patrick's Day is celebrated in more countries than any what?
A: Than any other national festival.

Modern celebrations have been greatly influenced by those of whom?
A: The Irish diaspora, particularly those that developed in North America.

In recent years there has been criticism of Saint Patrick's Day celebrations for having become too what?
A: Commercialized and for fostering negative stereotypes of the Irish people.

Who was Patrick?
A: He was a 5th-century Romano-British Christian missionary and bishop in Ireland.

Much of what is known about Saint Patrick comes from what?
A: The Declaration, which was allegedly written by Patrick himself.

It is believed that he was born where?
A: In Roman Britain in the fourth century, into a wealthy Romano-British family.

His father was a deacon and his grandfather was a what?
A: A priest in the Christian church.

According to the Declaration, at the age of sixteen what happened to him?
A: He was kidnapped by Irish raiders and taken as a slave to Gaelic Ireland.

It says that he spent six years there working as a what?
A: A shepherd and that during this time he "found God".

The Declaration says that God told Patrick to do what?
A: To flee to the coast, where a ship would be waiting to take him home.

After making his way home, Patrick went on to become what?
A: A priest.

According to tradition, Patrick returned to Ireland to do what?
A: To convert the pagan Irish to Christianity.

The Declaration says that he spent many years evangelizing where?
A: In the northern half of Ireland and converted "thousands".

Patrick's efforts against the druids were eventually turned into an allegory in which he did what?
A: Drove "snakes" out of Ireland (Ireland never had any snakes).

Tradition holds that he died on 17 March and was buried where?
A: At Downpatrick.

Over the following centuries, many legends grew up around Patrick and he became what?
A: Ireland's foremost saint.

According to legend, Saint Patrick used the three-leaved shamrock to do what?
A: To explain the Holy Trinity to Irish pagans.

Until the late 20th century, St Patrick's Day was often a bigger celebration among the diaspora than it was where?
A: In Ireland.

There are formal gatherings such as banquets and dances, although these were more common when?
A: In the past.

St Patrick's Day parades began in North America in the 18th century but did not spread to Ireland until when?
A: The 20th century.

The participants generally include what?
A: Marching bands, the military, fire brigades, cultural organizations, charitable organizations, voluntary associations, youth groups, fraternities, and so on.

More effort is made to use the Irish language, especially in Ireland, where the week of St Patrick's Day is what?
A: "Irish language week".

Since 2010, famous landmarks have been lit up in green on St Patrick's Day as part of what?
A: Tourism Ireland's "Global Greening Initiative" or "Going Green for St Patrick´s Day".

What were the first landmarks to participate?
A: The Sydney Opera House and the Sky Tower in Auckland and since then over 300 landmarks in fifty countries across the globe have gone green for St. Patrick ’s Day.

On St Patrick's Day, it is customary to wear what?
A: Shamrocks, green clothing or green accessories.

St Patrick is said to have used the shamrock, a three-leaved plant, to explain the Holy Trinity to whom?
A: The pagan Irish.

This story first appears in writing in what year?
A: 1726, though it may be older.

Green ribbons and shamrocks have been worn on St Patrick's Day since at least when?
A: The 1680s.

The Friendly Brothers of St Patrick, an Irish fraternity founded in about 1750, adopted green as its what?
A: Its color.

During the 1790s, green would become associated with Irish nationalism, due to its use by whom?
A: The United Irishmen.

This was a republican organization led mostly by whom?
A: Protestants but with many Catholic members—who launched a rebellion in 1798 against British rule.

The phrase "wearing of the green" comes from a song of the same name, which laments what?
A: United Irishmen supporters being persecuted for wearing green.

The wearing of the 'St Patrick's Day Cross' was also a popular custom in Ireland until when?
A: The early 20th century.

These were a Celtic Christian cross made of what?
A: Paper that was "covered with silk or ribbon of different colors, and a bunch or rosette of green silk in the centre".

When was Saint Patrick's feast day, as a kind of national day, already being celebrated by the Irish in Europe?
A: In the ninth and tenth centuries.

In later times, he became more and more widely seen as the what?
A: The patron of Ireland.

Saint Patrick's feast day was finally placed on the universal liturgical calendar in the Catholic Church due to the influence of whom?
A: Waterford-born Franciscan scholar Luke Wadding in the early 1600s.

Saint Patrick's Day thus became a holy day of obligation for whom?
A: Roman Catholics in Ireland.

It is also a feast day in the Church of Ireland, which is part of what?
A: The worldwide Anglican Communion.

In 1903 where did St Patrick's Day become an official public holiday?
A: In Ireland.

This was thanks to the Bank Holiday (Ireland) Act 1903, an act of the United Kingdom Parliament introduced by whom?
A: Irish Member of Parliament James O'Mara.

When was the first St Patrick's Day parade in Ireland held in Waterford?
A: In 1903.

The week of St Patrick's Day 1903 had been declared “what” by the Gaelic League?
A: Irish Language Week.

On St Patrick's Day 1916, the Irish Volunteers, an Irish nationalist paramilitary organization, held parades where?
A: Throughout Ireland.

The authorities recorded 38 St Patrick's Day parades, involving 6,000 marchers, almost half of whom were said to be what?
A: Armed.

The following month, the Irish Volunteers launched what?
A: The Easter Rising against British rule.

In 1927, the Irish Free State government banned the selling of what on St Patrick's Day?
A: Alcohol, although it remained legal in Northern Ireland.

The ban was not repealed until when?
A: 1961.

The first official, state-sponsored St Patrick's Day parade in Dublin took place when?
A: In 1931.