By Eva Weber
Staff Writer

For many Americans, St. Patrick’s Day is a holiday rich in history and tradition. This is especially true for the city of Boston.

St. Patrick’s Day draws more than 600,000 visitors to Boston nearly every year.  The city, of course, has a long-standing Irish tradition. Boston held America’s first St. Patrick’s Day celebration in 1737, and the city still boasts one of the nation’s largest St. Patrick’s Day parades, plus more Irish pubs than any other place in the U.S.A.

But did you know that St. Patrick’s day coincided with another holiday this year? Any clue as to what that holiday might have been? Here’s a hint: It has much more to do with the British than the Irish.

Well, unless you’re a history buff, or grew up in Suffolk County, you may have never heard of Evacuation Day.
With a name like Evacuation Day, you may be wondering why on Monday there wasn’t a huge exodus from Boston due to an alien or zombie attack. I get it, it’s not the most understandable name.

The origin of this holiday dates all the way back to our country’s revolution. The holiday commemorates the evacuation of British forces from the city of Boston following the Siege of Boston, early in the Revolutionary War.

The siege of Boston, which lasted 11 months, ended when the Continental Army, under the command of George Washington, fortified Dorchester Heights in early March 1776.

British General William Howe, whose stronghold and navy were threatened by these positions, was forced to decide between attack and retreat. Howe decided to retreat, withdrawing from Boston to Nova Scotia on March 17, 1776.

The British evacuation was Washington’s first victory of the war. It was also a huge morale boost for the Thirteen Colonies, as the city where the rebellion began was the first to be liberated.

Evacuation Day was not declared a holiday in the city until 1901, amid interest in local history that also resulted in the construction of the Dorchester Heights Monument. The state made it a holiday in Suffolk County in 1938.

So if you don’t have any Irish in you, and you were feeling a little left out on St. Patrick’s Day, you can still celebrate our city’s rich history on the day we kicked those redcoats out of Boston.