Saint Patrick’s Day  

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Irish: Lá 'le Pádraig or Lá Fhéile Pádraig (/LAW AY-luh PAW-rik/)

FACTS ABOUT THE MAN:

That we know any facts about Saint Patrick at all, is something of a miracle. Patrick is literally the only individual we know about from fifth-century Ireland or England. Not only do no other written records from Britain or Ireland exist from that century, but there are simply no written records at all from Ireland prior to Patrick's.

·          Saint Patrick’s exact date of birth is unverified, but commonly said to be in the 380’s A.D .

·          His birth name was Maewyn Succat. 

·          His father Calphurnius was a nobleman, a Deacon to the Church.

·          He is actually Welsh by birth, not Irish or English.

·          Growing up, his religion was actually Celtic Pagan. He had renounced his family’s faith as a child.

·          He was kidnapped from Wales at the age of 16, by Irish Marauders (Pirates), brought to Ireland, and sold into slavery to a local warlord.

·          He worked as a shepherd slave for his Master for six years, on Slemish Mountain in County Antrim, during which time he had visions that led to his conversion back to Christianity. In one dream, he was shown a way to escape from Ireland — by going to the coast and getting on a ship. After a perilous journey of hundreds of miles, he arrived at the coast and discovered a ship bound to Britain. Back in Britain, Maewyn's dreams continued. In his spiritual autobiography, the Confessio, he told of a dream about a man named Victoricus, who came to him with letters from Ireland. In this vision, Maewyn writes: "...as I read the beginning of the letter I thought that at the same moment I heard their voice...and this did they cry out as with one mouth: 'We ask thee, boy, come and walk among us once more.' " Although these visions moved him, Maewyn didn't feel himself worthy of returning to Ireland in his non-believer state. So, he journeyed to France where he entered a monastery and began studying for the priesthood. At this time he changed his name to Patrick (meaning "father of his people" in Latin). [15]

·          One night an angel came to him in a dream and told him that his boat was waiting for him. Patrick, after much praying, ran over 200 miles and begged an Irish seaman to take him on board.  At first the captain refused, as Patrick turned around he began to pray.  The seaman called Patrick back to the ship and took him home.

·          Saint Patrick supposedly died March 17^th, 460 or 461 A.D. in Saul, Downpatrick, Ireland, though both the date and place are also unverified.

HIS ROLE IN THE CHURCH:

• His rescue boat took him to Britain, after which he traveled to Gaul (Tours, France), to St. Martin’s monastery, where he studied under SaintGermain, Bishop of Auxerre, and became a priest over the next 12 years. During his training he became aware that his calling was to convert the pagans to Christianity.

• In 430 AD, he wished to return to Ireland to convert the native pagans to Christianity, but his superiors instead appointed St. Palladius, who was the actual first Christian missionary to Ireland. However, two years later Palladius transferred to Scotland. Patrick (Patricius), having adopted that Christian name earlier, was then appointed as second bishop to Ireland by Pope Celestine I.

• During this time, he wrote “Confessio” (The Confession), an autobiography defending his life of service.

• Patrick and 24 of his followers arrived in Ireland. Patrick decided to talk to the High King because if he was the most powerful man in Ireland. Patrick spoke to King Laoghaire. King Laoghaire was very impressed and chose to accept Christianity. He also gave Patrick the freedom to spread Christianity throughout Ireland.

• During this time he also wrote "A Letter to Coroticus" attacking slavery and denouncing British King Coroticus for kidnapping and enslaving his converts. This, and Confessio, are the only documents to have survived the fall of Rome and are in the Bibliothèque National in Paris.

• Patrick was claimed locally (in Ireland) as a saint before the practice of canonisation was introduced by the Vatican. For most of Christianity's first thousand years, canonisations were done on the diocesan or regional level. As a result, St. Patrick has never been formally canonised by any Pope, but he is still widely venerated in Ireland and elsewhere today

THE HOLIDAY:

·          The St. Patrick's Day custom came to America in 1737, the first year St. Patrick's Day was publicly celebrated, in Boston, Massachusetts, by Irish immigrants. It was the first Saint Patrick’s Day parade in the world.

·          In the recent past, Saint Patrick's Day was celebrated only as a religious holiday. It became a public holiday in Ireland by the Bank Holiday (Ireland) Act of 1903.

·         Until the 1970s, St. Patrick's Day in Ireland was a minor religious holiday. A priest would acknowledge the feast day, and families would celebrate with a big meal, but that was about it. "St. Patrick's Day was basically invented in America by Irish-Americans," Freeman said. Irish-American history expert Timothy Meagher said Irish charitable organizations originally celebrated St. Patrick's Day with banquets in places such as Boston, Massachusetts; Savannah, Georgia; and Charleston, South Carolina.

·          It was only in the mid-1990s that the Irish government began a campaign to use Saint Patrick's Day to showcase Ireland and its culture, and to reclaim a holiday that was about their own culture but celebrated more widely everywhere else but Ireland. The first Saint Patrick's Festival was held on March 17, 1996. In 1997, they dropped the word "Day" from the title and it became "St. Patrick's Festival", a three-day event. The festival has since grown to become a five-day festival (2006) and in 2001 was enjoyed by 1.2 million people.

HOLIDAY TRADITIONS:

Corned Beef and Cabbage With Green Beer

• In Ireland, the tradition was to eat Irish bacon and cabbage on St. Patrick's Day. When immigrants came to the U.S. around the turn of the twentieth century, however, money was tight, and they substituted the less expensive corned beef for the bacon. Beer was a traditional beverage, however, the green coloring is an American invention. [12]

• Corned beef and cabbage – the Irish eat it, but it’s not a tradition of the holiday there. More typical was Irish Bacon, and Irish Americans living in New York City may have learned to use Corned Beef as a substitute, from their Jewish neighbors.

• From "Ireland: Why We Have No Corned Beef & Cabbage Recipes": Ask someone -- especially a North American -- who hasn't lived or visited here about what Irish food is like, and nine times out of ten, as they grope for answers, they'll mention corned beef and cabbage. However, investigation shows that, while people here do sometimes eat corned beef and cabbage, they don't eat it all that much. Hardly any of them eat it for St. Patrick's Day. And it's absolutely not the Irish national dish. Some people ask, "Is corned beef really an Irish dish?" It is. Whatever might have been going on elsewhere in Europe, the Irish worked out for themselves how to salt-cure beef some time in the first millennium A.D. Corned beef is first mentioned "in print" in the 12th century poem called the Vision of MacConglinne, which tells us a lot about Irish food as it was eaten at that time. In the Vision, corned beef is described as a delicacy given to a king, in an attempt to conjure "the demon of gluttony" out of his belly.This delicacy status makes little sense until one understands that beef was not a major part of most Irish people's diets until the 1900's. What people do eat here on St. Patrick's Day, is a good question. We put the question to one of our local radio stations, South East Radio, which serves south Wicklow and parts of counties Wexford and Kilkenny. They kindly conducted an informal telephone poll to see what people liked to eat on "the day that's in it". The responses we got were things like, "Eat? I eat pints." (One respondent referred jocularly to the pint of Guinness as a "shamrock sandwich".) [17]
  

 

Leprechauns, Pots of Gold and Rainbows

• According to St. Patrick's Day: Parades, Shamrocks, and Leprechauns by Elaine Landau, the legend is that the fairies pay the leprechauns for their work with golden coins, which the "little people" collect in large pots--the famous "pots of gold" often associated with leprechauns. [11]

• The Irish version of the word "leprechaun," or "lobaircin," means "small-bodied fellow." They are traditionally cranky little men and only minor characters in Irish folklore, with nothing to do with St. Patrick. Thanks to Walt Disney's "Darby O'Gill and the Little People," however, Americans adopted the "friendly" little leprechaun as a symbol of Ireland and St. Patrick's Day. [12]

• A leprechaun (Irish: leipreachán) is a type of fairy in Irish folklore, usually taking the form of an old man, clad in a red or green coat, who enjoys partaking in mischief. Like other fairy creatures, leprechauns have been linked to the Tuatha Dé Danann of Irish mythology. The Leprechauns spend all their time busily making shoes, and store away all their coins in a hidden pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. If ever captured by a human, the Leprechaun has the magical power to grant three wishes in exchange for their release. Popular depiction shows the Leprechaun as being no taller than a small child, with a beard and hat, although they may originally have been perceived as the tallest of the mound-dwellers (the Tuatha Dé Danann).

• Etymology: The name leprechaun is derived from the Irish word leipreachán, defined by Patrick Dinneen as "a pigmy, a sprite, or leprechaun". The further derivation is less certain; according to most sources, the word is thought to be a corruption of Middle Irish luchrupán, from the Old Irish luchorpán, a compound of the roots lú (small) and corp (body). The root corp, which was borrowed from the Latin corpus, attests to the early influence of Ecclesiastical Latin on the Irish language. The alternative spelling leithbrágan stems from a folk etymology deriving the word from leith (half) and bróg (brogue), because of the frequent portrayal of the leprechaun as working on a single shoe. Alternative spellings in English have included lubrican, leprehaun, and lepreehawn. Some modern Irish books use the spelling lioprachán. The first recorded instance of the word in the English language was in Dekker's comedy The Honest Whore, Part 2 (1604): "As for your Irish lubrican, that spirit / Whom by preposterous charms thy lust hath rais'd / In a wrong circle." The earliest known reference to the leprechaun appears in the medieval tale known as the Echtra Fergus mac Léti (English: Adventure of Fergus son of Léti). The text contains an episode in which Fergus mac Léti, King of Ulster, falls asleep on the beach and wakes to find himself being dragged into the sea by three lúchorpáin. He captures his abductors, who grant him three wishes in exchange for release. [13]

March 17th

• St. Patrick's Day is celebrated on March 17, the saint's religious feast day and the anniversary of his death in the fifth century. The Irish have observed this day as a religious holiday for over 1,000 years. On St. Patrick's Day, which falls during the Christian season of Lent, Irish families would traditionally attend church in the morning and celebrate in the afternoon. Lenten prohibitions against the consumption of meat were waived and people would dance, drink and feast--on the traditional meal of Irish bacon and cabbage. [16]

 

Parades

• The first recorded true parade took place in 1766 in New York when local military units, including some Irish soldiers in the British army, marched at dawn from house to house of the leading Irish citizens of the city.

• The first St. Patrick's Day parade held in the Irish Free State was held in Dublin in 1931 and was reviewed by the then Minister of Defence Desmond Fitzgerald. Although secular celebrations now exist, the holiday is still a religious observance in some areas.

 

Shamrocks & Clovers

• Patrick used the three-leafed shamrock (a plant native to Ireland) to explain the Trinity. He used it in his sermons to represent how the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit could all exist as separate elements of the same entity. His followers adopted the custom of wearing a shamrock on his feast day. [5]

• Although clovers are most often found in nature with three leaves, rare four-leaf clovers do exist. Finding one is thought to bring someone extreme luck. The folklore for four-leaf clovers differs from that of the Shamrock due to the fact that it has no religious allusions associated with it. It is believed that each leaf of a four-leaf clover represents something different: first is hope, the second is faith, the third is love, and the fourth is happiness. [11]

• While ministering to King Laoghaire, it is claimed that Saint Patrick plucked a shamrock from the ground and tried to explain to the druids and the King that the shamrock had three leaves just like God had three personas - The Father, The Son and the Holy Ghost. This was called the Trinity. Patrick’s  followers thus adopted the custom of wearing a shamrock on his feast day. This story is not verified, but commonly accepted.

St. Patrick's Day Shamrock Shortage:
According to St. Patrick's Day lore, Patrick used the three leaves of a shamrock to explain the Christian holy trinity: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Today, St. Patrick's Day revelers wear a shamrock out of tradition. But people in Ireland hoping to wear an authentic shamrock are running low on luck.
Trifolium dubium, the wild-growing, three-leaf clover that some botanists consider the official shamrock, is an annual plant that germinates in the spring. Recently, Ireland has had two harsh winters, affecting the plant's growth. "The growing season this year is at least as delayed as it was last year, and therefore there is the potential for shortage of home-grown material," John Parnell, a botanist at Trinity College Dublin, said in an email. "We have had frost and snow showers in parts of Ireland within the past week," he added.
Other experts pin the shortage of the traditional plant as much on modern farming methods and loss of traditional hay meadows."The cold winters we are having here lately are just another nail in the coffin," Carsten Krieger, a landscape and nature photographer whose books include The Wildflowers of Ireland, said via email.
To make up for the shortfall, many sellers are resorting to other three-leaf clovers, such as the perennials Trifolium repens and Medicago lupulina. According to the Irish Times, these plants are "bogus shamrocks."
Trinity College's Parnell agreed that Trifolium dubium is the most commonly used shamrock today, which lends credence to the claims of authenticity. However, he added, the custom of wearing a shamrock dates back to the 17th and 18th centuries, and "I know of no evidence to say what people then used. I think the argument on authenticity is purely academic—basically I'd guess they used anything cloverlike then."
What's more, botanists say there's nothing uniquely Irish about shamrocks. Most clover species can be found throughout Europe. [14]

 

Snakes

• Saint Patrick is most known for driving the snakes from Ireland. It is true there are no snakes in Ireland now, but there probably never have been - the island was separated from the rest of the continent at the end of the Ice Age. As in many old pagan religions, serpent symbols were common and often worshipped. It also evokes representations of evil, such as the Serpent in Eden. Driving the snakes from Ireland was probably symbolic of putting an end to Pagan worship there.

 

Wearin' O' The Green

• It is actually likely that "The Wearin' O' The Green" meant the Shamrock, not just the color green. Green was once said to bring bad luck from malicious fairies, so it used to be a bad luck color. Ireland is known as the "Emerald Isle" because the plant life there is always green. But wearing green on St. Patrick's Day is an American-made custom. [12]

• The original colour of St. Patrick's Day was not green, but blue. It wasn't until the 19th century that green became Ireland's national colour and eventually the colour of St. Patrick's Day because of its association with the shamrock, springtime and the Emerald Isle.

•  If you are Protestant, you may wear Orange in place of Green.

 

HOLIDAY FACT AND FICTION: 

·           It is never St. Pat's Day, or St. Patty's Day, either. “Pat”, in Ireland, can be a boy, a girl, a small dollop of butter or what you do to a pet. It has nothing to do with a saint. We call it St. Patrick's Day or - more usually – “Paddy's Day”. Patrick in Irish is Padraig, and that is why it is D not T. [10]

·          The Irish do not find it cute or amusing that everyone “wants to be Irish” one day a year. Plastic Paddy is a pejorative term used to describe non-Irish nationals who harbour a nostalgic claim of 'Irishness' due to having Irish heritage. The term usually concerns perceived cultural appropriation of Irish customs and identity by members of the Irish diaspora (those who emigrated) or even those with no ancestral connection to Ireland. A 'Plastic Paddy' allegedly knows little of actual Irish culture, but asserts their identity, claiming it to be Irish.

·          Green beer, green food (that is not naturally that color), and getting uncontrollably frat-boy drunk. Just stop it. No, really. None of this is Irish. Confused Americans made that up.

Bear in mind that the dark truth nobody points at, is that this holiday originated in celebrating the destruction of Ireland's own native religion by a zealous outsider. Afterwards, it was primarily a Catholic holiday, until the Americans got hold of it, when it became secular for the majority of American celebrants.

 

GREETINGS IN GAEILGE (IRISH):

SOURCES:

[1]                http://www.tartanplace.com/saintpatrick/shistory/stpatbio.html

[2]                http://www.st-patricks-day.com/about_saintpatrick.asp

[3]                http://www.americancatholic.org/Messenger/Mar1997/feature1.asp

[4]                http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Patrick's_Day

[5]                http://wilstar.com/holidays/patrick.htm

[6]                http://hnn.us/articles/623.html

[7]                http://www.learnirishgaelic.com/articles/article-53-10.html

[8]                http://www.irish-sayings.com/saint-patricks-day.php

[9]                http://www.stpatricksday.ie/cms/history_stpatricksday.html

[10]          http://paddynotpatty.com/

[11]          http://holidays.kaboose.com/saint-patricks-day/history/patrick-history-traditions-symbols.html 

[12]          http://www.ehow.com/facts_5165009_st-patricks-day-traditions.html 

[13]          http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leprechaun 

[14]          http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/03/110316-saint-patricks-day-2011-march-17-facts-ireland-irish-nation/ 

[15]          http://www.riverdeep.net/current/2002/03/031102_stpatrick.jhtml

[16]          http://www.history.com/topics/st-patricks-day

[17]          http://www.europeancuisines.com/Why-We-Have-No-Corned-Beef-Recipes