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St. Patrick’s Day

Irish communities around the world celebrate their patron saint on Saint Patrick’s Day, March 17. It is the Irish national holiday, and a public holiday in the Republic of Ireland, the territory of Montserrat, and the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. The holiday is also widely celebrated in the United States, and in many major cities around the world.

Saint Patrick’s Day is a celebration of Irish culture for people of Irish heritage, and for people who are Irish-for-the-day. Traditions include “wearing the green” by dressing with at least one piece of green clothing, wearing a shamrock (a three-leaf clover), and visiting the local Irish Pub, where it is likely that the beer has been dyed green for the day.

There are parades in cities around the world. The St. Patrick’s Day parade in Dublin, Ireland is part of a five-day festival. The largest St. Patrick’s Day parade is held in New York City and attracts more than 2 million spectators. The first American St. Patrick’s Day parade was held in Boston in 1737. Manchester, England hosts the third-largest parade, after New York and Dublin. In continental Europe, the largest parade is held in Munich, Germany. Melbourne, Australia boasts of having the largest parade in the Southern Hemisphere. Encouraged by sponsors such as Guinness beer, St. Patrick’s Day festivities are catching on in diverse places such as Copenhagen, Moscow and Chicago, where the Chicago river is dyed green for the occasion.

A typical St. Patrick’s Day parade includes: bagpipes, men in kilts, fire engines, Irish dancers, drummers, politicians, more pipes, and more fire engines.

History of St. Patrick’s Day

Originally a Catholic holy day, St. Patrick’s Day has evolved many secular traditions. Coming at the very beginning of spring, for many people it is a chance to spend time outdoors and see the first signs of “green.”

The person who was to become St. Patrick was born in Wales about AD 385. At about 16 years of age age, he was sold into slavery by a group of Irish marauders that raided his village. During his captivity, he turned to God. He escaped from slavery after six years and went to Gaul where he studied in the monastery under St. Germain, bishop of Auxerre, for twelve years.

He returned to Ireland, where he was appointed second bishop to Ireland two years later, and was quite successful at converting the local pagans to Christianity. This upset the Celtic Druids, who arrested Patrick several times, but he always managed to escape. He traveled throughout the country, establishing monasteries, schools and churches.

He retired after 30 years and died on March 17 in AD 461. Many folktales surround the story of St. Patrick, but not many of them are actually substantiated. He is said to have raised people from the dead. It is also said that he drove the snakes out of Ireland. Since snakes are not indigenous to Ireland, this is likely a metaphor for the conversion of the pagans.

St. Patrick used the three-leafed shamrock to explain the concept of the Trinity — how the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit could all exist as separate elements of the same entity – leading to the custom of wearing a shamrock on his feast day.

His holiday became more secular after it was declared a public holiday in Ireland in 1903. In the mid 1990’s, the Irish government led a campaign to use St. Patrick’s Day to showcase Irish culture worldwide, with the first Saint Patrick’s Festival held on March 17, 1996.

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