The Irish drink-maker Guinness is pushing to make St. Patrick’s Day a national holiday, and though the move has some support in Boston’s Irish community, others see it as a promotion to simply drum up business.

The stout-maker has thrown its support behind a proposition recognizing St. Patrick’s Day as a national holiday, according to a Feb. 14 press release from Diageo, makers of the Irish drink.

The company needs 1 million signatures before it can submit Proposition 3-17 to Congress to make the day an official national holiday, and cites the national observance of Thanksgiving, New Year’s Day, Labor Day and Columbus Day as reason enough to observe St. Patrick’s Day.

“Guinness supports the demands of adults around the United States to take a day off from work and celebrate their Irish spirit,” Diageo spokesman Richard Nichols said in the release.

A related survey cited in the release showed nearly a third of U.S. residents who are not of Irish background plan to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day.

Many Boston-area business establishments will already be closed for St. Patrick’s Day because it falls on Suffolk county’s Evacuation Day — the day that British forces left Boston during the Revolutionary War.

Irish Cultural Centre of New England Executive Director Sean Grant said he supports Guinness’s proposition because the Irish have contributed so much to the country throughout history.

“I know for many people because of connections through their relatives who immigrated and their love of Irish culture, how it would be important to have this day recognized as a national holiday,” Grant said.

Although Grant said he understands the commercial reasons why Guinness would support the proposal, he said the company does care about more than just beer sales.

“Guinness has done tremendous work supporting Irish culture and I would be surprised if it was purely driven by profit gain,” Grant said.

Michael Thomas, a bartender at the pub Kitty O’Shea’s, said St. Patrick’s Day as a national holiday would not have a huge impact in Boston.

“It’s a good day and people take the day off anyways,” Thomas said. “Everybody is Irish on that day. Every year, no matter if it is a holiday or not, it’s big.”

Although Thomas said he supports the petition, he called Guinness’s support of the proposition questionable.

“It’s like tobacco companies pushing for a cigarette day, a National Camels Day or something,” he said.

Boston University College of Engineering freshman Allison Ward said she would sign the petition because of her Irish pride, but she said she is also wary of Guinness’s sponsorship of a national holiday.

“It will be made into a national drinking holiday to promote drinking Guinness,” Ward said.

College of Fine Arts freshman Megan McCarney said Guinness’ involvement with the petition would mean making the holiday a symbol of drunkenness.

“They’re making it a holiday about drinking and partying but it’s not really about that,” McCarney said.

McCarney said making the day a national holiday would be unfair to other cultural groups and said she does not believe it will be passed.

Rabbi Avi Heller from BU Hillel said he does not think Congress will take the proposition seriously because it comes from a beer company.

“I think it’s extremely unlikely that it will be made into a national holiday and if it did then there would be other groups that would ask what about Jewish New Year or Chinese New Year,” Heller said. “I think it’s a very clever publicity stunt for Guinness.”