Throwing a tra­di­tional Irish party for St. Patrick’s Day is a non-traditional American thing to do.

A new idea for this year’s St. Patrick’s Day cel­e­bra­tion is to throw an Irish party com­plete with tra­di­tional foods, dances, cos­tumes, and music.

Food is a must at any party. Irish recipes from back in the time of St. Patrick con­sisted of only a few ingre­di­ents, which means they won’t require much of any­thing to make. Common Irish dishes include soups, boiled din­ners, breads, and breakfast.

A tra­di­tional Irish Stew con­sists of goat, which is replaced by lamb in today’s soci­ety, pota­toes, onions, thyme, and pars­ley. Mashed pota­toes is also an Irish sta­ple and scal­lions are usu­ally added to them. Apple pie is a clas­sic for desert.

It is a tra­di­tion to in Ireland that break­fast can be served at any time of the day, so if you don‘t want to cook a stew this would be a fun option. A clas­sic Irish break­fast includes bacon, sausages, black pud­ding, mush­rooms, toma­toes and eggs all served with Soda Bread and Potato Farl.

Something impor­tant to know is that the Irish cel­e­brate St. Patrick’s Day as a holy day cen­tered around the spread­ing of Christianity. Keeping this in mind, the American tra­di­tion of wear­ing green is not some­thing they do in Ireland. Wearing a sham­rock is what the Irish do to cel­e­brate the day because it is sym­bol of St. Patrick teach­ing the holy trinity.

The American tra­di­tion of green beer is just that, American. In Ireland you would be lucky to come across a pub that served green beer. Also, it is not a heavy drink­ing day for them. Until the late 1970s Irish law would not allow pubs in Ireland to be open on St. Patrick’s Day. This means it’s all right to serve plain beer at your party.

So now that you know what to serve, what to wear and what to drink, you need to know what music to play. Traditional Irish music is played on instru­ments such as the fid­dle, flute, tine whis­tle, Uilleann Pipes, gui­tar and the bodhran, which is an Irish drum.

Making an Irish themed play list that includes the instru­ments is a great way to throw clas­sic Irish tra­di­tion into your party. If you and your guest aren’t a fan, U2 is an Irish band so they can be used as a backup.

Dressing in a Celtic style for your party and doing river dance or Celtic Dance is a fun activ­ity for your guests to try. You could also play sports such as Irish Hurling, which is sim­i­lar to rugby, Gaelic Football, which is a mix between rugby and foot­ball, or just tra­di­tional soc­cer. Gaelic Football and Irish Hurling have been around for centuries.

The Leprechaun myth is a tra­di­tion of the Irish. These lit­tle guys are heavy partiers and trick­sters, but are also great dancers and musi­cians. They have mag­i­cal pow­ers and wear small suites, waist­coats, buck­led shoes, and hats. Having a Leprechaun themed party is always a fun option.

St. Patrick’s Day has been Americanized in many senses and we have our own way of cel­e­brat­ing the hol­i­day. Instead of get­ting decked out in green, drink­ing till you drop, and watch­ing every parade on tele­vi­sion, con­sider cel­e­brat­ing like they do where St. Patrick came from. This is way to poten­tially learn and come to have a greater respect for another cul­ture. n