QR Codes for St. Patrick’s Day

Tips to make your St. Patrick’s Day marketing campaign a success

Want to share more St. Patrick’s day themed information but have limited space? Maybe you have released a new product to celebrate Irish culture, but you are unsure how to boost awareness? No problem, QR Codes are here to help you create more brand awareness with a variety of design options and bridge that pesky gap between the offline and online world.

Share St. Paddy’s Day recipes on your product packaging

Betty Baker loves inspiring their customers to get creative with their baking products, especially during festivities like St. Patrick’s day. Adding additional text felt out of the question on the limited space provided on their product packaging, so they used an Image Gallery QR Code instead. They were able to provide customers with a myriad of creative recipes with the simple scan of a Code.

And with the customization feature, they designed their QR Code to reflect the festive colors traditionally used on St. Patrick’s Day.

Create a lasting sales impact with special promotions

Creating a mobile gaming app inspired by St. Patrick’s day leprechauns and shamrocks meant eGo Gaming Studios needed to promote its download for the occasion quickly and efficiently. With the high traffic on their website, they decided to promote it to their existing customers by adding an App QR Code on their digital banners. This Code connects users directly to the app store most appropriate for the operating system, whether it’s Apple Store, Google Play Store, or Amazon Appstore.

All users needed to do was launch either their camera or scanning app, point, and scan the Code, getting instant access to the game, while eGo Gaming Studios saw a significant boost in app downloads.

Get more followers on social media

The easiest way to engage with customers on a day-to-day basis is through social media platforms. This is what initially inspired World Trekker Tours to launch their own Instagram and Twitter account with regular updates on their newest offers or ideas for hot holiday destinations. But they were having a hard time getting new followers, so they decided to add an easier access point for customers.

With the Social Media QR Code printed on postcards, newsletters, and their window display with a call-to-action (CTA) encouraging scans to discover more offers and travel ideas, they were able to get more people to follow them.

An overview of St. Patrick’s Day traditions and history

Every year on March 17th, we celebrate St. Patrick’s Day. But who was Patrick and what impact did he have in Ireland? Was drinking always a part of the celebration? Where was the first annual parade held? Originating in Ireland and brought over to the USA in the mid-19th century, St. Paddy’s Day has become one of the largest in the country. Let’s untangle the myths and facts surrounding the festivities.

Who was Patrick?

He is believed to have been born Maewyn Succat sometime in the 5th century. A lot of his life, as you will read, is shrouded in myth and legend. But several facts about him come from his very own writings: Confessio and Letter to the soldiers of Coroticus. One is a short autobiography, reflecting on his character and the era he lived in, while the other was a letter he wrote to fellow Christians: soldiers who raided parts of Ireland and sold several civilians into slavery.

Maewyn Succat was born in Somerset County, England, but at the age of sixteen, he was kidnapped by a band of marauders and taken to Ireland as a slave for several years. Legend says that, during this time, a voice would come to him in his sleep urging him to escape, which he successfully did at the age of twenty-two. But even after having returned to his native England, he continued to have a series of revelations and dreams, which eventually prompted him to pursue priesthood. He moved to France and became a Catholic Deacon.

After finishing his religious studies, he decided to go back to the island, this time, as a missionary with the purpose to liberate the Irish people from the oppression of slavery, as well as convert pagans to Catholicism. This is what granted him the name we know him by today: Patritius (Patrick), “father of his people,” given to him by Pope Celestine before he embarked on his journey to the Emerald Isle.

The claim from hagiographies, the writings of the lives of saints, and Patrick himself in Confessio is that he spent several years evangelizing in the northern half of Ireland and converted thousands.

What is St. Patrick’s Day?

St. Patrick’s feast day, the 17th of March every year, marks his death day. Though tradition holds that he was buried at Downpatrick, many villages and towns claim to be his resting place. But like much of his life, this remains more ambiguous and shrouded in legend.

Myths and folklore

The most famous of all the traditions tied to myth is the wearing of green and how it makes one invisible to leprechauns. Leprechauns love to pinch people, again according to lore, and if you are not wearing green, they will see you and pinch you. Although, usually others, such as friends and acquaintances, are always more than happy to do so in a leprechaun’s stead.

The earliest depictions of St. Patrick have him in blue garments. However, often called the Emerald Isle, the common nickname for Ireland due to its lush greenery, all things Irish are oft associated with the color green. Shamrocks are green and there's green in the flag, leading Americans to gradually begin wearing more green on Saint Patrick's Day. As it grew in popularity in the U.S., the tradition carried over to Ireland and the rest of the world, making green the official color for this occasion.

The shamrock, not the four-leaf clover, is associated with St. Patrick. Legend has it he used it to explain the Holy Trinity to non-Catholics.

Another popular myth shrouds the origins of the Celtic cross. Believed to have been introduced by St. Patrick himself, there are no actual written records of this.

Though no records show evidence of snakes ever having inhabited the island, St. Patrick is attributed to banishing them from Ireland, though some believe snakes were a metaphor for Celtic priests, symbolizing the banishment of paganism.

Most symbols associated with St. Patrick were thought to have roots in Celtic pagan traditions. It’s believed he combined both to make the conversion from one religion to the other easier to understand and accept.

How is it celebrated in Ireland?

1903 marked the first year when St. Patrick’s Day became an official public holiday in Ireland, thanks to the Bank Holiday Act. Even before, however, Irish across Europe already celebrated St. Patrick’s feast day, having been added to the Catholic Church’s liturgical calendar in the early 1600s thanks to the Franciscan scholar Luke Wadding.

Until the 1700s, the day was spent mainly in prayer, with the typical Irish family spending the morning at Mass since the day landed during the Christian season of Lent. Afternoons were reserved for celebration, with Lenten prohibitions on meat lifted for the day as families sang and danced.

Drinking was not always a part of these festivities, and before the drinking ban was repealed in Ireland, there was only one place on the isle where one could buy a tipple on March 17th: The Royal Dublin Dog Show.

Why is it celebrated in the USA?

The historical culture of the USA is largely shaped by the traditions brought over by immigrants over the years. So it’s only natural that St. Patrick’s day migrated over the Atlantic with the Irish, who have been celebrating their patron saint’s feast since the 9th century.

And they brought it in full force, changing the meaning and energy behind this occasion. Over the years, its popularity abroad inspired the Irish government to use it as a vehicle for promoting Irish culture and heritage.

St. Patrick’s Day parades across the world

Irish soldiers serving with the English military marched through Manhattan to a local tavern, marking 1762 as the first year a St. Patrick's Day parade ever took place in New York. But the first parade in the USA was held in Boston in 1737, powered by the strong Irish community living there.

The Irish diaspora in North America continued to celebrate their cultural pride with gusto, inspiring Chicago to color its river green each year since 1962. In the last few decades, St. Paddy's day parades have become a global staple. London, UK hosts a parade each year with a different theme, and Munich, Germany, boasts their parade as being their largest multicultural event after Oktoberfest, just to give a few examples.

And finally, every year, landmarks across the world go green for this event, a movement often called “Going Green for St. Patrick’s Day” or “Global Greening Initiative.” Rio’s Christ the Redeemer, the Colosseum in Rome, and the Empire State Building in New York are a few examples that light their walls green for the day.