Why do people get pinched on St. Patricks Day if they do not wear green?
Pinching those not wearing green on St. Patrick’s Day is an American tradition, having really nothing to do with Ireland or St. Patrick. It’s thought that the pinching started in the early 1700s, about the time that awareness of St. Patrick’s as a holiday came to the fore, too, in Boston, in the Massachusetts colony. They thought if you wore green, it made you invisible to the Leprechauns, which was good because they would pinch anyone they could see. So the pinching is to warn and remind you about the Leprechauns.
