St. Patrick's Day
St. Patrick's Day is the single most green day of the year. Whatch-ya got on that World Environment Day, huh?! The Irish are the greenest of green! What's that? You're telling me it's not the same type of green?? Well, kiss my blarney stone! One green thing is for sure, there is no shortage of the emerald color on St. Patrick's Day. Green clothes, green beer, green rivers, green shamrocks, leprechauns in green...No doubt this bright hue, quick to induce visions of Ireland and spring time, is ubiquitous on this day known for partying in green. However, St. Patrick's Day is about more than just shamrocks, shenanigans, and chartreuse.
St. Patrick, not natively Irish, was born near the end of the fourth century in the British Isles. He is one of the most famous figures in Christianity, even though Patrick was not a practicing Christian in his childhood years and considered himself to be a pagan until the age of 16 years old. In a Roman-ruled Britain, Christianity had been abandoned for pagan beliefs. At the age of 16, Patrick was taken prisoner by Irish maraudcers who invaded his town and was sold in to slavery in Ireland. There he spent six years in captivity as a sheep herder and returned to his once discarded religion, becoming a devout Christian.
According to writings by Patrick, after six years in slavery, a voice he believed to be that of God came to him in a dream telling him to escape and leave Ireland via a get-away ship. He was able to do just that, escape his captors and board a ship leaving Ireland, and ended up back in Britain. Patrick later went to France where he studied in a monastery in Gaul under St. Germain, bishop of Auxerre. It is there that Patrick is said to have received more visions telling him to return to Ireland where his calling was to convert pagans to Christianity. After 12 years of religious training, Patrick did return to Ireland, but this time as a bishop. He was widely successful in converting the Irish to Christianity and spent 30 years on this mission, establishing monasteries and churches throughout the country, before retiring to Country Down (Northern Ireland). This is where Patrick remained until his death on March 17th, A.D. 461. The Irish have, for thousands of years since, celebrated March 17th as a religious feast day to honor St. Patrick.
There is much legend surrounding St. Patrick, most of it probably the product of clever Irish story telling rather than actual truth. One such tale says St. Patrick stood atop a hillside and banished all snakes from Ireland, thereby sending them all into the ocean where they drowned. In actually, given it's an island, snakes were never native to Ireland. Another legend recalls St. Patrick's use of the shamrock to explain the Holy Trinity. He explained in sermons that, just as the three leaves of the shamrock combine to create one plant, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, all are separate but combine to create one entity. This made the concept of the Holy Trinity easier to understand for those new to Christianity. In addition to the legends surrounding St. Patrick, the Irish love the shamrock for its relation to the number three (three leaves). Three is a magic number to the Irish and was important to Celtic symbolism. For these reasons, the shamrock is a revered symbol to the Irish. It is customary to wear the shamrock on St. Patrick's Day.
St. Patrick's Day in Ireland has always been a religious holiday but more of a secular event in other parts of the world. In was declared a public holiday in Ireland in 1903 and laws were introduced requiring pubs to be closed on March 17th. The pub closing laws were repealed in the 1970's but it was not until the 1990's that the government of Ireland began to expand the scope of St. Patrick's Day to include a festival meant to boost tourism and highlight Irish culture on a world stage. The first St. Patrick's Day Festival in Ireland was held March 17th, 1996 and by the next year had turned in to a three day long event. In 2006 the festival had grown to five days long.
In the United States, St. Patrick's Day has always been more of a fun, secular day for recognition of Irish culture than strictly a religious commemoration of a patron saint. The first St. Patrick's Day parade was not held in Ireland, it happened in the United Stated in 1762 when Irish soldiers serving in the English military marched through New York City. Over the years, Irish immigrants to America continued to enthusiastically celebrate their heritage and form groups to promote the Irish culture and ideals. During 1845 and the Great Potato Famine of Ireland, there was an influx of poor, Catholic Irish to the United States. There was tension between this population and the Protestant middle class Irish who had previously made up the bulk of the Irish immigrant residents, but the two groups ultimately realized they had a stronger political voice as one. With their banding together, the Irish created an important voting block, therefore gaining influence in American society. St. Patrick's Day parades were held in many cities and politicians often thought of them as must-attend events.
Today in the United States St. Patrick's Day is a popular celebration but is not an officially recognized holiday. Many cities hold parades and some paint the street lines on the route green. New York City holds the largest St. Patrick's Day parade in the world. The dying of the Chicago river green every year for St. Patrick's Day is an event known nation wide and is a U.S. tradition in the celebration of this holiday. Perhaps the most popular event on St. Patrick's Day in the United States is attending parties and drinking. Irish themed pubs and Irish alcohols are very popular during this day of celebration.
People of all cultures and backgrounds join in on St. Patrick's Day festivities. Many dress in green (or risk being pinched!) and public places are often festooned in decorations of that color as well as with shamrocks, leprechauns (a.k.a. Irish fairies), and pots of gold (the secret treasure of leprechauns). Americans of all descents warmly embrace being "Irish for a day" but in order to ensure the luck o' the Irish one needs to find a four leafed clover, wear green, catch a leprechaun, or kiss the blarney stone (which is located in Blarney Castle in County Cork, Ireland and requires lying down and bending backwards in order to reach). Many stores carry St. Patrick's Day merchandise, anything you'd need to have a festive and lucky holiday. Everything from Irish food, to St. Patrick's Day themed clothing, toys and party decorations can be found around March 17th every year.
St. Patrick's Day is a public holiday in the Republic of Ireland, the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador, and Montserrat. In Northern Ireland it is a bank holiday and in the rest of Canada St. Patrick's Day is widely celebrated but is not an official holiday. St. Patrick's Day is also very popular in the United Stated, Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom but is not an official holiday in these countries either. Other countries with St. Patrick's Day celebrations of varying degrees include Japan, Singapore, Russia, and many European states with ever-increasing Irish populations.
