French and international relations sophomore Benjamin Kalosa-Kenyon said he chooses to celebrate the holiday because of his personal opinions of Ireland itself.

“In like an abstract way, I guess I have a lot of love for, you know, the people of Ireland, like what they stand for, like as an IR major, I have some strong pro-Irish opinions, I guess,” Kalosa-Kenyon said. “I feel like they are a lot of times on the right side of history, so I have a lot of love for Ireland.”

Kalosa-Kenyon also uses the holiday as an excuse to see his friends and have a good time together.

“I’m a college student, you know, we drink, we have a good time, whatever,” Kalosa-Kenyon said. “Like it’s just how it goes, I suppose.”

Similarly, communication, leadership, and strategy senior Chloé Cotter likes to appreciate the history of St. Patrick's Day.

“I think that there’s a really good story behind St. Patrick’s Day and the history that he went through, and his family, and just like honoring that day is something special, but obviously, it turned into something that’s a little bit to celebrate it,” Cotter said. “It’s also just a really good way to connect with people and friends and do stuff.”

For finance freshman Sophia Scalzi, St. Patrick's Day has always been a home tradition. 

“We always went to the parade back at home, so I’m going to do it here,” Scalzi said.

As for other students, Kalosa-Kenyon said they may celebrate the holiday due to the community aspect it creates, including "another opportunity to go crazy." Scalzi said others may like to take advantage of another opportunity to go out with friends and engage in the constant events.

“I think that it could be that they resonate with the story, or they like it,” Cotter said. “Also, it’s just something to do and MSU is green, (and) we all have green in our closet, so there’s always stuff to do too, there’s so many events.”

St. Patrick's Day is a day to forget studies and other pressures and just celebrate, Cotter said. She added that the fun "little quirks" and traditions make the holiday particularly enjoyable at MSU.

“(It’s) another opportunity to hang out with my friends, you know?" Kalosa-Kenyon said. "I know a lot of people come up from like other schools as well because like MSU just, you know, we have good people here. People want to be here and people want to be celebrating like our campus and stuff.”