Today is St. Patrick’s Day, honoring Ireland’s patron saint and celebrating one of the world’s biggest cultural traditions.

The date marks the death of St. Patrick who lived in the 5th century and is traditionally credited with spreading Christianity in Ireland. The holiday began as a religious feast day, but today it’s marked with parades, music and plenty of green. More than 30 million Americans claim Irish ancestry, helping explain why the first recorded St. Patrick’s Day parade was held in America, not Ireland.

Chicago was first to dye its river green in 1962, followed by cities across the country.

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The first recorded St. Patrick’s Day celebration in what is now the United States likely took place in St. Augustine, Florida, in 1601, with a feast and procession organized under Spanish rule.

Boston held a more recognizable parade-style celebration in 1737, and New York City followed with its first parade in 1762, when Irish soldiers serving in the British Army marched through lower Manhattan. Together, the three events mark different “firsts” in American St. Patrick’s Day history.

Today, New York’s parade is the largest, with 150,000 marchers and millions of spectators, while Boston remains one of the oldest continuous traditions.

Andrew John Hozier-Byrne, known as Hozier, born March 17, 1990, in Bray, County Wicklow, Ireland, is a singer-songwriter known for soulful vocals, poetic lyrics and genre-blending music.

He studied at Trinity College Dublin before leaving to pursue music and first broke through internationally with “Take Me to Church,” a multi-Platinum hit that earned Grammy nominations. Hozier followed with songs like “Someone New,” “Movement” and “Too Sweet,” building a career that blends folk, blues, rock and gospel influences.

His albums have topped charts in multiple countries, and his literary songwriting and voice have made him one of music’s most distinctive artists.

Today is National Corned Beef and Cabbage Day, celebrating the dish most closely associated with St. Patrick’s Day in the United States.

Despite its Irish-American reputation, corned beef and cabbage is more American than Irish. In Ireland, pork or bacon was more common, but Irish immigrants in 19th-century New York often bought affordable corned beef from Jewish butchers and paired it with cabbage and potatoes. The result became a filling, budget-friendly meal that stuck. “Corned” refers to the large grains of salt once used to cure the beef, not corn itself. Today the dish remains a St. Patrick’s Day staple.

Celebrate St. Patrick’s Day with The Modern Proper’s recipe, which works in a slow cooker or oven: Slow-cook a 5-pound corned beef brisket with its seasoning packet, stout, garlic, bay leaves and spices, then add potatoes, carrots and cabbage in stages until tender. Slice and serve with mustard.