Celebrating St Patrick's Day, Kiwi style

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DRESSING UP: Every year, one-year-old Caoimhe's mother buys her a new outfit to celebrate St Patrick's Day.

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Everybody's Irish on St Patrick's Day, according to Christchurch woman Seaneen McKenzie, but some are just a little more Irish than most.

Mrs McKenzie will be among thousands in New Zealand who will be first in the world to celebrate St Patrick's Day today.

Every year, Mrs McKenzie, 35, buys her one-year-old daughter Caoimhe (pronounced Keva) a new outfit to celebrate the day.

This year's ensemble included a dress, socks and shoes covered in shamrocks, as well as a matching bow to wear in her hair.

"Obviously us dressing her up is trying to set her up for the tradition as well," she said.

"I'm hoping that as she gets older she'll love dressing up too. I'm hoping ... she'll be pleased and proud that we did that for her."

Playing dress-up wasn't just for the little ones as Mrs McKenzie planned to deck herself out with green, white and gold eye shadow, and would be slapping Irish flags on her face with the colour scheme stretching from her top to her headband - "like all those other crazies at the pub that you see get dressed up. That's us," she said.

Around 20 per cent of Kiwis claim to have Irish roots, with even more claiming it for the day in order to join in celebrations.

Born in New Zealand to Irish parents, Mrs McKenzie said her heritage had always loomed large in her life.

"It was sort of instilled in me from an early age and I suppose I've just carried on the tradition," she said.

The day was a chance to honour Ireland's patron saint, but more recently had become a celebration of Irish roots.

An Irish dancer since the age of seven and a former national champion, Mrs McKenzie has travelled to Ireland three times - once for the world championships, once on an OE, and most recently with her husband of four years, Mark, whom she married on St Patrick's Day.

The pair celebrated their anniversary on St Patrick's Day, but also made an effort to do something special together on another, less hectic, day as well, she said.

Today they plan to have breakfast at a local Irish pub where they will watch some Irish dancing and listen to Irish music to "get in to the swing of things" before an Irish bar-crawl.

The festivities will finish at the home of Mrs McKenzie's parents. Family and friends have taken the next two days off work.

"With some of us having young children now we have to think about them and obviously we can't spend all day and night at the pub," she said.

"So that's our plans for [today] and then hopefully not have too sore a head on Thursday."

- © Fairfax NZ News