St. Patrick's Day Google Doodle Features Animated Dancers

Google is celebrating St. Patrick's Day with an animated homepage doodle that features six Irish dancers.
The dancers are outfitted in traditional Irish step dance costumes, each of which feature one letter from the Google logo. They are dancing in unison, including a high-flying jump.

Last year's St. Patrick's Day doodle channeled the Book of Kells, a 9th-century gospel manuscript. The Book of Kells, currently housed in the Old Library at Dublin's Trinity College, is believed to have been created around the year 800 in the monastery at Kells, County Meath after a Viking raid forced the Columban monks to abandon a monastery on the island of Iona, just off the west coast of Scotland.

Today's holiday, meanwhile, celebrates St. Patrick, who lived during the fifth century and is the patron saint and national apostle of Ireland. As noted by History.com, he is known for bringing Christianity to the people of Ireland, and his legend has taken on mythic proportions.

"Perhaps the most well known legend is that he explained the Holy Trinity (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) using the three leaves of a native Irish clover, the shamrock," History.com said.

Interestingly, however, the first St. Patrick's Day parade was actually held in the U.S. in 1762 in New York City, a tradition that continues today. This year's parade was held on Saturday, and featured Grand Marshal John E. Smith, the great-grandson of Al Smith, former New York governor