Ouch

So this morning, someone didn't think I was wearing green and they pinched my arm. There are two points here: 1. my bracelet has a green pearl (maybe even two or three), and 2. I had never heard of this whole pinching thing.

So I turned to the St. Patrick's Day etiquette and all-knowing www.wikianswers.com for the answer.

Why do people get pinched on St. Patrick's Day if they do not wear green?

• You get pinched because you're a nonconformist.
• Pinching gives you a bruise so you can have some green on you.
• The act of pinching on St. Patrick's day began in America with Irish settlers who tried to get their kids to behave by telling them that fairies would come pinch them.

And the answer ACTUALLY is:

Pinching those not wearing green on St. Patrick's Day is an American tradition, having really nothing to do with Ireland or St. Patrick. It's thought that the pinching started in the early 1700s, about the time that awareness of St. Patrick's as a holiday came to the fore, too, in Boston, in the Massachusetts colony. They thought if you wore green, it made you invisible to the Leprechauns, which was good because they would pinch anyone they could see. So the pinching is to warn and remind you about the Leprechauns.