St. Patrick died on what we believe to be March 17, 461 AD. Thousands of years later, we still celebrate his life with great rejoicing and honor him as the patron saint of Ireland and for bringing Christianity to the country. Parades, festivals, and the wearing of green clothing or shamrocks are all common parts of Irish celebrations. In the United States, we have many similar festivities distributed across some of the country’s biggest cities. In Chicago, the long-standing tradition of celebrating St. Patrick’s Day is most notably defined by dyeing the river green for the festivals. Similarly, after a break due to difficulties with the pandemic, the St. Patrick’s Day parade in Boston returned as a big hit. In New York City, the celebrations marked the first event in two years without COVID-19 restrictions. Famously in NYC, bagpipers parade down Fifth Avenue past St. Patrick’s Cathedral. Here at Notre Dame, the National Honor Society offered its own take on the famous Shamrock Shake. On St. Patrick’s Day, students paid $1 to dress down and $4 if they wanted to try a shake. The NHS fundraiser was a huge success, and students walked the halls especially festive with green lips and fingertips. 

On March 1st, Notre Dame High School held an assembly on race diversity, led by Ryan Gassaway and Amanda Figueroa. The assembly taught us about implicit bias. Implicit bias is described as being when we have attitudes toward people or associate stereotypes with them, without our conscious knowledge. Implicit bias in the assembly was stereotyping people based on their race and ethnicity. An example of implicit bias is when Homeowners will not sell houses or property to specific people based on their race and will find another way around it.