New York State is postponing their village elections for Saint Patrick’s Day. The election is supposed to be held on the third Tuesday in March, but this year that means it’ll be on March 17th, or St. Patrick’s Day! It’s not just a suggestion, it’s actually the law. The law was changed in 1998, which was the last time the election and St. Patrick’s Day fell on the same Tuesday. Before this law villages had the option to move the election, but since 1998 it is mandatory to move it.

From Syracuse.com:

“It changed the ‘may’ to ‘shall’,” Brehm said.

The bill was introduced by then-Assemblyman Joseph Crowley, an Irish-American from Queens who is now a congressman for New York’s 7th District. His co-sponsor was Nicholas Spano, then an assemblyman from the very Irish community of Yonkers in Westchester County.

The fact that two politicians from the New York City area sponsored the bill should come as no surprise: The city was the site of the first St. Patrick’s Day parade held in 1762, and it’s still the largest St. Patrick’s parade in the country.

The official — and brief — reason given for the bill: To honor Irish heritage.

Does that mean donning green wigs and shamrock sunglasses, and drinking in Irish bars?

“To honor Irish heritage,” is as far as Brehm will go.

Through his communications director, Crowley jokingly recalled sponsoring the bill as way of “promoting free and fair elections, so as not to give any Irish candidates a leg up.”

“But obviously it was done to let folks celebrate the holiday,” said Angela Barranco, speaking for Crowley. “And make sure that village elections weren’t overshadowed.”

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, more than 34 million Americans say their ancestors came from Ireland, about 12 percent of the country’s population. It’s the nation’s second most frequently reported ancestry, behind German.

But that may not really matter.

On St. Patrick’s Day, as the saying goes, everyone is Irish.