Each year on March 17, the Irish and Irish-at-heart come out in - PDF document

Each year on March 17, the Irish and Irish-at-heart come out in droves to pubs and parade routes to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day in Ireland, and many countries far from Ireland. Here is some history about the holiday: Who was Saint Patrick? Saint Patrick is known as the patron saint of Ireland and one of the most successful Christian missionaries in history. Although St. Patrick was never officially canonized by a pope, he is included in the list of saints, and his feast day was officially placed on the Catholic Church’s liturgical calendar in the early 1600s. Born in Britain to a Christian family of Roman citizenship in the late 4th century, he was taken prisoner at the age of 16 by a group of Irish raiders who attacked his family’s estate. They transported him to Ireland, and he spent six years in captivity before escaping back to Britain. Believing he had been called by God to Christianize Ireland, he joined the Catholic Church and studied for 15 years before being consecrated as the church’s second missionary to Ireland. Patrick began his mission to Ireland in 432, and by his death in 461, the island was almost entirely Christian. In the centuries following Patrick’s death, the mythology surrounding his life became ever more ingrained in the Irish culture. Many exaggerated stories surrounded St. Patrick, including the claim that he rid Ireland of snakes. It has long been recounted that, during his mission in Ireland, St. Patrick once stood on a hilltop (which is now called Croagh Patrick), with only a wooden staff by his side, and delivered a sermon that drove the island’s serpents into the sea. While it’s true that the Emerald Isle is snake-free, chances are the island nation was never home to any snakes. Water has surrounded Ireland since the end of the last glacial period, preventing snakes from slithering over; before that, it was blanketed in ice and too chilly for the cold-blooded creatures. The Christian faith often uses snakes or serpents as symbols of evil, and scholars believe the “banishing of the snakes” was really a metaphor for the eradication of pagan ideology from Ireland, and the triumph of Christianity.

Familiar with the Irish language and culture, scholars believe that St. Patrick chose to incorporate traditional rituals into his lessons of Christianity instead of attempting to eradicate native Irish nature-based pagan beliefs. For instance, he used bonfires to celebrate Easter since the Irish were used to honoring their gods with fire. He also superimposed a sun, a powerful Irish symbol, onto the Christian cross to create what is now called a Celtic cross. Perhaps the most well-known legend is that he explained the Holy Trinity (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) using the three leaves of a native Irish clover, the shamrock- a sacred plant in ancient Ireland representing the rebirth of spring. St. Patrick’s Day Celebration in Ireland Since around the 9th or 10th century, the people in Ireland have been observing the Roman Catholic feast day of St. Patrick on March 17, the anniversary of his death in the 5th century. Until the 1700s, St. Patrick’s Day was only celebrated in Ireland. It wasn’t until 1903 that St. Patrick’s Day became a national holiday in Ireland, with banks and stores closed for the day. St. Patrick’s Day usually occurs in the middle of Lent, and Lenten prohibitions against the consumption of meat and alcohol are waived on St. Patrick’s Day. Traditionally, the St. Patrick’s Day observance is mostly a religious one. Most, if not all, practicing Christians in Ireland attend church in quite prayer in the morning, as it’s a Holy Day of Obligation. The family gathers in the afternoon, in their home with a few friends, to dance and sing to traditional music, and feast on modest food and drink. A traditional meal of Irish bacon (a lean, smoked pork loin similar to Canadian bacon or ham), and cabbage is often served. The celebration offers a welcome respite from traditional abstinence, and other sacrifices, many faithful Catholics honor during the normally somber time of Lent---without the raucous revelry of today’s American celebrations.

It is worth noting that in Ireland, beef was only eaten by the wealthy. Working class Irish, when they had meat at all, would have eaten pork. Because there was no way of storing fresh meat, they made pork into bacon. This was done at home by simply brining it, or preserving it with salt. (Nowadays corned beef is widely available in Ireland, but Irish bacon and cabbage is still far more popular). When impoverished Irish immigrants arrived in New York City’s Lower East Side, they began to substitute salt-cured beef (corned beef) for Irish bacon. It was purchased dirt cheap as leftover provisions from the ships returning from the tea trade in China and similar to the Irish bacon they were used to. And so, the traditional Irish Saint Patrick’s Day meal of Irish bacon and cabbage became corned beef and cabbage in America. Eventually, St. Patrick’s feast day evolved into a greater celebration including not only St. Patrick, but also Irish culture, history, and traditions. By the 17th century, as a result of the Penal Laws in Ireland, the shamrock had become a symbol of emerging Irish nationalism. As the English began to seize Irish land and make laws against the use of the Irish language and the practice of Catholicism, many Irish began to wear the shamrock as a symbol of their heritage pride and their displeasure with English rule. When the Irish began to see St. Patrick’s Day as a means to promote Irish culture, the tradition of wearing shamrocks began to be a popular practice on St. Patrick’s Day. A small bunch of shamrocks would be worn on their left breast, which was known as wearing of the green, to signify their Irish heritage and its traditional connection with St. Patrick. All over Ireland, shamrocks are blessed in ceremonies known as the Blessing of the Shamrock by either local Priests or Bishops for the St. Patrick’s Day display. It has also become a tradition for the Irish prime minister to present a bowl of live shamrocks, in a Waterford Glass bowl, to the President of the United States in the White House every St. Patrick’s Day as a symbol of the close ties between the two countries. After all, the 2017 U.S. Census shows about 33 million Americans are of Irish ancestry, compared to 6.6 million on the island of Ireland itself. In Ireland, the alcohol consumed on St. Patrick’s Day is known as Póta Phádraig or St. Patrick’s Pot, and the Irish tradition known as drowning the shamrock involves making a toast to St. Patrick then tossing a shamrock over your shoulder for good luck (which is conveniently being worn on your shoulder). In America, w earing of the green on St. Patrick’s Day became wearing green clothes –accompanied by an American tale that if you wear green, you become invisible to leprechauns; and if they see you, because you are not wearing green, they will pinch you. Ouch!