St. Patrick’s Day Parade in San Francisco 2006, originally uploaded by lindn

Few Swedes understand the importance of St. Patrick’s Day, not just in Ireland, but in the United States.

Fifty million of the 300 million Americans are of Irish descent. Besides the huge annual parade in New York, the largest St. Patrick’s Day parade west of the Missippippi is in San Francisco. Stores are filled with cards, buttons (”Kiss me, i’m Irish”) and other green items, and there are St. Patrick’s Day parties everywhere.

St. Patrick’s Day Parade 2006 in New York

Not only do leading Irish politicians, like prime minister Bertie Ahern, visit Washington at this time of year, even the Lord Mayor of Dublin is in San Jose, California, Dublin’s sister city.

The local bookstore here in Ukiah has has a table in the front of the store filled with books about Ireland and Irish history.

CBS photo essay on St. Patrick’s Day 2007 around the world (including Denmark)

In Sweden each of the 365 days of the year has at least two names attached to it, coming originally from the Christian saints calendar. But the importance of St. Patrick’s Day is so minimal in Sweden that Patrik (the Swedish spelling of Patrick) has been moved to another day (April 16)!

For reasons which are difficult to fathom, the Swedish Academy has given March 17 to Gertrud.