Ah, St. Patrick's Day! A holiday which is at once a celebration of the rich and diverse culture that has blessed us with everyone from James Joyce to The Edge, and the only day of the year where it is somehow socially acceptable to drop green food coloring into a pint of domestic draft.

Why of course we love price-gouged Natty Light and hearing "Where The Streets Have No Names" 30 times in a 4 hour span as much as the next blogger, but we have long felt that there had to be some sort of quantitative measure available to show just how far most Americans are willing to go in order to find an excuse to drink on a Thursday in March. Thankfully that is where the National Retail Federation comes in.

The NRF has released its annual St. Patrick's Day survey, which seeks to measure just how many Americans plan on celebrating the feast of the Emerald Isle and, perhaps more importantly, just how much they are willing to spend in that pursuit.

The NRF survey shows that most Americans plan on spending $33.97 in celebrating the ol' Erin Go Bragh this year. That is a slight increase over last year's net average of $33.05. As for the estimated total Americans are expected to shell out on soda bread and corned beef this year? $4.14 billion. Yes that's right, $4.14 billion in one day, a staggering 20% jump over last year's total of $3.44 billion. And who said no one liked green bagels?

According to the NRF's research, a whopping 122 million Americans over the age of 18 are planning on celebrating St. Patrick's Day this year, which is 52.4% of the total American population. Of course "celebrating" means different things to different people, it can mean the fun idea of wearing something green which 102 million Americans (83.3%) plan on doing this year. Or it could mean you are one of the 23 million folks who will be attending a private St. Patty's celebration at a friends home. Perhaps it means attending a party at bar or restaurant, as 31.2% of Americans will be doing come Thursday evening.

Or it could mean telling Rudy Giuliani what you really think of him at a post-parade happy hour after your seventh Guinness, as certain un-named bloggers may or may not have done a few years back. That's a fun tradition too!

But isn't that the joy of St. Patrick's Day? A day completely devoted to enjoying the company of good friends, eating some hearty food, and passing out in the cab on the way home. That right there, is the most American of traditions.