St Patricks Day is Only One Month Away!

St Patricks Day is Only One Month Away!

Happy St Patrick's Day Tshirt

March 17 is the big day! Are you ready? It's the day of pub crawls and parades, of green beer and the river running green in Chicago (more on that tomorrow), of the wearin' o'the green, and of leprechauns.

Keep Calm and Leprechaun Tshirt

So how much do you know about leprechauns...really? Here are a few little-known facts about the little fellas.

Shamrock Nation The word leprechaun, according to the Oxford Dictionaries, probably comes from the Old Irish luchorpan (lu=small + corp=body). The Oxford Dictionary goes on to say that "When the leprechaun first appeared in English literature in the 17th century, it was named lubrican; the modern form dates from the 19th century."

The first recorded instance of the word in the English language was in Dekker's comedy The Honest Whore, Part 2 (1604): "As for your Irish lubrican, that spirit / Whom by preposterous charms thy lust hath rais'd / In a wrong circle."

If You're Lucky Enough to be Irish, You're Lucky Enough! Tshirt

There are no female leprechauns. This is probably why leprechauns are so grumpy. They spend their whole lives (about 300 years, some say) making shoes and saving their gold in big iron pots. Nobody knows exactly what they spend their gold on, if anything.

Pog Mo Thoin Funny Irish St Patricks Day Tshirt

One more interesting leprechaun fact, from the website MentalFloss :

Leprechauns are protected under European Law. "Apparently, there are 236 leprechauns that live in the caverns of Carlington Mountain. The EU has granted heritage status to the remaining wee people; they now have their own protected sanctuary nestled in the mountain. The directive also protects the animals and flora in the area to help keep the biodiversity of the land safe."

We've embedded some of our favorite St Patricks Day tshirts in this post. Click the descriptive link beneath each t-shirt to learn more or to be taken to the purchase site. Hope you enjoy them!