About 120 events are on the calendar as Poland joins Ireland in celebrating St. Patrick’s Day.

While the Irish celebrate their national day on March 17, some of the events are already under way in Poland as part of an annual festival.

Irish Ambassador Gerard Keown, in his remarks to open the St. Patrick’s Festival in Poland, said that St. Patrick’s is a day when everyone can feel Irish.

He also said that landmark buildings in 19 Polish cities would be illuminated green “in a celebration of Irish-Polish friendship” on Saturday.

The Palace of Culture in the capital Warsaw, the Town Hall in the western city of Poznań, and the Teutonic Knights Castle in Malbork in the north of the country will be among landmark Polish buildings that will go green as part of the wider Global Greening project on Saturday.

The Irish embassy has said on its website that the Polish community in the Republic of Ireland, which accounts for 3 percent of that country’s population, is valued and welcomed by Irish society.

St. Patrick’s Day events in Poland include concerts, exhibitions, lectures and an Irish Ball in Warsaw with fund-raising for a Polish charity.

Meanwhile, the Irish Minister of State for Housing and Urban Development, Damien English, has visited the Polish cities of Poznań and Wrocław for the Irish Smart City Solutions and Irish Innovation Forum events that were held there.

(mk/gs)