Everyone is looking forward to celebrating St. Patrick’s Day this year. But, is it still possible to enjoy this festive event even with our current situation? Many companies are looking for ways on how they can celebrate this festive event with their employees and customers as well.

About St. Patrick’s Day

Saint Patrick was born in Roman Britain. He was kidnapped and brought to Ireland as a slave at a young age of 16. Later on, he was able to escape, but returned to Ireland to spread Christianity. After years of preaching, St. Patrick died of natural causes on March 17, 461. However, his life and contributions made an impact on Irish culture.

What really marks his legacy is when he explained the Holy Trinity which is the Father, Son ,and Holy Spirit using the leaves of a native Irish clover called the Shamrock. Since then, St.Patrick’s Day has been celebrated annually by Irish community and people on March 17, which is his death anniversary in the fifth century. The Irish community has been celebrating St. Patrick’s Day for over 1000 years now as a religious holiday.

Since March 17 falls during the Lenten Season, Irish families attend church in the morning and celebrate St. Patrick’s Day in the afternoon. Although the lenten season banned the consumption of meat, it is waived during the celebration as the people dance, drink and eat a traditional irish meal which are cabbage and bacon.

Why People Celebrate St. Patrick’s Day

Patrick or commonly known as St. Patrick was never canonized by the Catholic Church but his missionary work in Ireland where he was able to convert 135,000 people, established 300 churches and consecrated 350 bishops is enough reasons to celebrate his life, contributions in spreading Christianity, and dedication in proclaiming the gospel is something worth celebrating.

Each year, millions of people around the world are celebrating St. Patrick’s Day. It is held as a National Holiday, where people have no work instead they worship together with the family. Today, this grand celebration is held with people wearing green which is a symbol of spring on the Irish culture.

How St. Patrick’s Day is Celebrated in the Workplace

Many are looking forward to celebrating St. Patrick’s Day. Even companies are finding ways to celebrate this festive day inside the workplace for their employees’ sake.

 Here are ways on how some companies celebrate St. Patrick’s Day:

1. Great Decorations

With “green” as the colour motif, streamers, confetti, and other decorations with this colour is being used to decorate the workplace. Some companies even heighten the festive scenery by allowing their employees to decorate their own cubicle using company provided materials.

2. Wearing Green Outfit in the workplace

Employees will surely love the idea of dressing up as most people in town will do the same during this festive day. You can encourage them to wear green bands, green antenna headbands, jewellery, face paint and other accessories they would like to add. To ensure that everyone will make an effort in dressing up you can actually turn it into a contest where the employee with the most amazing dress-up attire wins a small price from the company.

3. Play Fun Irish Music

In order to boost the Irish vibes, you should make a playlist of Irish folk songs and popular bands. You can even ask your employees for their favourite Irish songs to be added to the playlist.

4. Talk to the employees about an Irish Potluck

Yes, a potluck is ideal for these kinds of events. You can ask your employees to sign-up with the kind of food they will bring to the celebration. For sure someone will “chip in” corned beef, Irish soda bread, shepherd’s pie and other Irish dishes. But, make sure to offer vegetarian options so that everyone can enjoy the foods.

5. Happy hour on a Famous Irish Hub

Upgrade your employees’ celebration of St. Patrick’s Day with beer and whiskey. You do not need to go far, you can make reservations at a nearby pub or go out for a “karaoke” where you can all sing your favourite Irish songs. 

5 Virtual Ways to Celebrate St. Patrick’s Day

With today’s situation where most employees are working home-based and with most customers staying home, how can you pull off a successful St. Patrick’s Day celebration everyone can enjoy even in an online setup?

Fun virtual events, that’s the answer to your festive problem. Well, I bet you are all used to using virtual conference platforms by now, so why not use these virtual meeting platforms for your company’s St. Patrick’s Day Virtual Celebration.

The best virtual meeting platform can be your online party venue and here are some exciting activities you can do:

1. Interactive Online Bingo Game

Bingo, a vintage game everyone who already played it enjoyed. So why not allow your employees to reminisce about their past experience playing Bingo but this time the game will take place online and the game has new mechanics which are still connected to the Irish culture. To enhance the whole Bingo experience you can come up with great prizes to be delivered in the winners’ doorsteps.

2. Host a virtual cocktail workshop

St. Patrick’s day is celebrated with drinks and more Irish drinks. Your virtual fair can include a virtual cooking workshop. Anyone can participate in the workshop but at the end, you should pick participants that will showcase what they learned in the virtual show. The others will take part in the voting process on who has the best looking and tasty looking cocktail.

3. Online Irish Trivia Challenge

In some pub bars, Irish quizzes take place as additional entertainment for those people who are celebrating this holiday. So, instead of doing it in a pub bar, it can take place online. Some virtual trade show platforms offer online trivia challenges with enjoyable video clips and Irish music. You can divide your employees into teams and the team with the highest score wins the trivia challenge. Make sure to prepare an amazing prize the winning team can enjoy.

4. Virtual Zoom Party

Celebrate the Irish festive celebration in style with a virtual zoom party. A hybrid webinar software like zoom offers real-time face-to-face video calls with the whole staff and the best part is everyone can join. If you are not comfortable hosting the party yourself, you can actually hire a host for the party.

5. Play St. Patrick’s-Themed Online Escape Game

For fun virtual events, you should hire a well-known virtual fair provider with a good track record of happy clients. Cluehub is one of the best providers of Online Escape Games. The best thing about this gamification pioneer is that they can provide customized escape games depending on their clients’ request. For the upcoming holiday event, you can stick to St. Patrick’s Day theme. For sure, everyone will appreciate the theme and enjoy playing escape games via teams.

Employee Appreciation Ideas in St. Patrick’s Day

If you’re out of ideas, you can always ask your employees. They probably have great ideas install for you like the following:

• Start the celebration with a gift token.

Putting up a small token of appreciation to your employees during St. Patrick’s Day is the best way to go. You can show them the gift during the hybrid meeting or virtual party.

• Good Irish music during the event.

Allow your employees to enjoy good Irish music as the party begins, they will surely appreciate the gesture especially if they can make some request with the playlist.

• Irish identity for the team.

This might sound childish but it makes the virtual party more fun I swear, Each employee choosing their own Irish names and will be called with that name all throughout the party is some peoples dream of doing.

• Unforgettable game time.

Having a party done online is somehow very tricky and hard for some, especially when games are involved. But still, games are the life of any party held online. This is the best time where participants can interact with their co-workers and at the same time have some fun. You might not see the result yet but throwing games during virtual fair enhances team building as well.

Conclusion

It would really be great if people could celebrate St. Patrick’s Day like before but unfortunately, that cannot be done with the world’s current state. Yet, it does not mean we cannot celebrate this festive event everyone is looking forward to every year. With creativity combined with the best virtual meeting platform, you can throw out a fully interactive virtual fair, virtual exhibit hall, virtual show or even a virtual career fair 2021.

Contact our Cluehub specialist today for the best online celebration!