Keeping it Spooky: Holiday Series – St. Patrick’s Day

Holidays are meant to be celebrated and enjoyed. Let’s take a look at how you can “spook-ify” your holiday. This episode is on the holiday Saint Patrick’s Day.

Original Holiday Name: Saint Patrick’s Day

Spooky Holiday Name: 🍀 Lucky & Bewitched, St. Patrickween, OR St. Patty’s Nightmare

Let’s take a closer look at some of the folklore and how you can celebrate with activities and décor.

Folklore:

Irish Folkore is full of creatures with untold power, beautiful and magical landscapes, and stories of terror and fighting. From Irish stories we have the Dullahan, who is a headless horseman riding a black coach scouring for the dead. Another beloved folklore creature is the Banshee, a woman spirit who is a harbinger of death with her deafening screech. She often appears in a dull colored cloak and a dark green dress. Then there are the dark fairy water horses, or Kelpies, who drown children. I mean, why is folklore always horrid stories of children? Hugging my childhood. A famine ghost by the name of Fear Gorta brings bad luck and omens. And lastly, the Evil Leprechauns that bring mischief, tricks, and malevolent behavior instead of leading to a pot of gold and rainbows. I like the spook but I also enjoy a good triple rainbow!

Décor:

If you want to dress up your décor and vibe for a “spookier” twist on the green day, you can darken the colors to deep emerald greens, antique gold, and natural wood tones. You can use vintage-style shamrocks and Celtic-inspired patterns. You can darken the light but using candlelight, mossy textures, and enchanted woodland vibes. And go with more of an old-world pub charm with a slightly mystical twist.

So, think of what you may have on hand for a typical Saint Patrick’s Day and swap it out for something spooktacular.

• Plastic shamrock garlands → engraved wooden clover accents
• Neon green party decor → deep forest greens and dark/antique gold details
• Party beads → (lucky) charm tokens or pocket “luck” keepsakes
• Cartoon leprechauns → subtle folklore-inspired symbols or rustic accents with magical vibes

No matter what you decide to decorate with, you can easily change your décor to make it more mystifying.

Activities and Ways to Celebrate:

So let’s party:

• Costume Party: Instead of a parade or night just wearing green, throw a costume party where guests dress as their favorite scary creature from Irish folklore. You can find a handful here. Or go one step further and created a haunted house that uses green lighting, fog machines, and "evil leprechauns" or "sinister trolls".
• "Evil" Food Dishes: Serve Irish soda bread with the typical cross shape cut into it to "let the devil out," or serve green mashed potatoes with reddened gravy for a frightful combination.
• Horror Movie Marathon: Watch the horror movies that focus on leprechauns and trolls, and other Irish legends.
• Green Ghostface: Utilize the "Shamrock Ghostface" character, a popular crossover character that "slays" those not wearing green. Yes! This is real thing I just learned.
• Creepy Cocktails: Serve green drinks with lychee and blueberries, that will make it look like there are eyeballs looking back at you. Or serve with some kind of red colored garnishes. You could even add a bit of “gold” with yellow berries or grapes, and lemon twists to have a more leprechaun feel.

Did You Know?

Dark romance is a growing decor trend. There are so many décor ideas that you can look up for gothic décor, dark romance, or evermore inspired.

Four-leaf clovers occur in approximately 1 out of every 5,000 clovers per this website.

The color originally associated with Saint Patrick was actually blue.  With this fun fact, I have no idea what to do with this. How fun would it be to do an original patty’s celebration and have everything “blue” décor and food wise? I think this may be more terrifying than any of those creatures mentioned earlier.

Many traditional “good luck charms” come from old protective folklore symbols. Welcome my witch, mystic and pagan friends! This was all about protection. There are even houses that have some hidden symbols in the handles of cabinets, above the doors, and in the garden. Does your house secretly display any luck symbols to ward off the bad?