St. Stephen's Green in Dublin, Ireland

© L_E/Shutterstoc

In the footsteps of Leopold Bloom

Today we're looking down at St. Stephen's Green in Dublin in honor of Bloomsday, a day when people celebrate Irish author James Joyce and his famous 1922 novel 'Ulysses.' But why today, you ask? That's because the novel follows the meanderings and thoughts (and meandering thoughts) of the protagonist, Leopold Bloom, and a host of other characters—real and fictional—from 8 AM on June 16, 1904, through the early hours of the next morning.

In 1924, Joyce himself mentioned in a letter that some people celebrated 'Bloom's day' on June 16, which must have amused him. Then, for the 50th anniversary of the events in the novel, a group of Irish literary figures and other 'Ulysses' enthusiasts organized a kind of a pilgrimage on June 16, 1954, ambling along the route that Bloom takes through Dublin. Bloomsday has since grown into a worldwide literary celebration. People in Dublin can follow in the characters' footsteps through the city's streets, visiting places immortalized in the novel; others may celebrate by dressing in the fashions of the time, eating food mentioned in the book, and performing readings of the text.