St. Patrick’s Day is a day where people gather to sport their green attire, search and destroy those victims who don’t sport the green, find themselves an Irish dish such as corned beef and cabbage to eat, and get sloshed on green beer or an Irish liquor.
However, along with these traditions come questions about the sources of these traditions and symbols, such as who is St. Patrick?
Well, St. Patrick was a religious figure who was canonized as a saint for converting Ireland to Christianity.
Even though St. Patrick was not born in Ireland and it is unknown exactly where he was born, according to wikipedia.com, he “was sold into slavery by a group of Irish marauders who raided his village” at the age of 16.
After he escaped and studied in a monastery, he returned to Ireland with a vision to spread the word of God.
According to religionfacts.com, St. Patrick used the shamrock to explain to the Irish pagans the Trinity: The father, the son, and the Holy Ghost. Thus, he brought about the symbol of the shamrock to Irish culture.
“Patrick was quite successful at winning converts,” according to wikipedia.com, “a fact that upset the Celtic Druids.”
Even after several arrests, escapes, and his death on March 17 in AD 461, St. Patrick made a lasting impression on Ireland.
Since St. Patrick’s death, Ireland honored the day every year to remember the saint.
According to wikipedia.com, until recent years, St. Patrick’s Day was considered only a religious holiday in Ireland until it became a bank holiday in 1903. There were no festivals on the day until March 17, 1996.
In fact, it was a law for pubs to be closed on March 17 until it was “repealed” in the 1970s, according to wikipedia.com.
Although St. Patrick’s life and death brought about some of the annual traditions celebrated on March 17, he did not embed other traditions such as the wearing of green and pinching into our annual celebration.
Even though pinching those who do not wear green on this day has become a tradition, it is unknown the source of this tradition.
According to various sources, the color green is a celebration of “The Emerald Isle,” Ireland’s nickname given because its hills are so green, and it happens to be one of three colors on their flag. According to wikipedia.com, children usually sport green, white, and orange colors, which are all the colors on their flag.
However, according to Bridget Haggerty in National Geographic News, “in Ireland the color was long considered to be unlucky. Irish folklore holds that green is the favorite color of the good people (the proper name for faeries).
They are likely to steal people, especially children, who wear too much of the color.”
Leprechauns, on the other hand, according to mythsofst.patricksday.com, are “grumpy, alcoholic, insufferable elves in the employ of Irish fairies.” Even though they were considered shoemakers, they are remembered as having a pot of gold that they guarded like starving wolves.
According to blackdogsst.patricksdayhistory.com, the leprechaun has become Ireland’s national fairy.
However, mythsofst.patricksday.com says, “Somewhere in the course of the Irish American experience, the leprechaun took on the characteristics of the loveable, but ultimately contemptible, stage Irishman.”
Another long revered tradition of St. Patrick’s Day is corned beef and cabbage.
Although cabbage is “truly” an Irish dish, according to religionfacts.com, “The corned beef was substituted for bacon by Irish immigrants to the Americas around the turn of the century who could not afford the real thing.”
So, where does the term “luck of the Irish” come from?
“During the gold and silver rush years in the second half of the 19th century, a number of the most famous and successful miners were of Irish and Irish American birth,” according to mythsofst.patrick.com. “Over time this association of the Irish with mining fortunes led to the expression.”
Although the Irish dish and the Irish term rooted from 19th century America, according to Markey in National Geographic News, famous Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson “brought a store of Guinness [beer] with him during a trip to Samoa in the South Pacific.”
Guinness Stout was actually first brewed in Dublin, Ireland in 1759 by Arthur Guinness, said Markey, and now “1,883,200,000 (that’s 1.9 billion) pints of Guinness are consumed around the world every year.”
So, what do other countries do to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day?
Besides the typical traditions used in the United States, “The New York parade has become the largest Saint Patrick’s Day parade in the world, outside Ireland,” according to wikipedia.com. Chicago dyes its river green every year.
Denmark holds an annual three-legged charity race, and Munich, Germany, also holds a parade with “an open air party with live music and dance performances” afterward, according to wikipedia.com. In Great Britain, people consume large amounts of Guinness in order to receive a Guinness hat.
According to Markey, Dublin celebrates with a parade and a festival full of 15,000 pounds of fireworks to attract 400,000 people.
“One reason St. Patrick’s Day might have become so popular,” according to wikipedia.com, “is that it takes place just a few days before the first day of spring. One might say it has become the first green of spring.”