I always look forward to March and St. Patrick’s Day, not because of my Irish heritage, which is non-existent, but because I love the various Irish dolls I’ve made over the years. Molly McGee sports a full head of red hair and a green dress. She’s flanked by numerous pairs of leprechauns with red hair, green clothes, and pointed ears. They all wear some kind of shamrock charms.
This year I decided to do some research about all the symbols of St. Patrick’s Day and discovered that perhaps I didn’t know as much about the whys connected with the day. Some of the new information was surprising to say the least. What do you know about the holiday?
We all know that the holiday is named after Saint Patrick who is the patron saint of Ireland. Learning about who he was puts a different spin on the man. Patrick was born a Roman Britain in the late 4th century. At 16 he was kidnapped and taken to Ireland where he was forced into slavery. He eventually escaped and returned to Britain. But in 432 he returned to Ireland in hopes of converting the Irish to Christianity. He died on 17 March 461 after establishing monasteries, churches, and schools.
By the end of the 7th century, there were multiple legends surrounding St. Patrick. He is said to have driven the snakes out of Ireland while standing on the hilltop, Croagh Patrick. With a raised staff, he banished snakes from Ireland. The truth is that Ireland was never a home to snakes!
Another legend surrounding him is that he used the shamrock to explain the Trinity to the Irish people. The shamrock has always been a sacred plant to the Irish because it symbolizes the rebirth of spring. It wasn’t until the 17th century that it became the symbol of emerging Irish pride. As the English seized Irish lands and made laws against the Irish language and Catholicism, the shamrock was worn as a symbol of Irish heritage and pride.
It was emigrants, especially to the United States, that transformed the day into a largely secular holiday, celebrating all things Irish. In fact, the day was never celebrated in Ireland until tourists began coming to the nation. Today the country celebrates the day with parades and pageantry. But it was in the US that the day really began being celebrated.
The first parade on St. Patrick’s Day was in New York City in 1762, when Irish soldiers in the English military marched through the city. Today, the parade held on March 17th can have anywhere from 150,000 to 250,oo0 participants, all of which walk the street. There are no floats or automobiles of any kind allowed.
While Ireland is called the Emerald Isle because of the lush greenery, the official color of St. Patrick’s Day was originally blue! Saint Patrick’s blue is a lighter shade and can be seen on ancient Irish flags. When George III created a new order of chivalry, the order of Saint Patrick, its color was sky blue or St. Patrick blue. It was because of the English’s tainting the blue color that the shamrock and its green color were adopted for Saint Patrick’s Day.
Hold on to your seat. We know that corned beef and cabbage are the traditional foods of St. Patrick’s Day. But did you know that the corned beef is a relatively new part of the food tradition? Apparently, Irish bacon was the meat of choice. Irish bacon comes from the back of the pig rather than the belly like American bacon. Irish bacon is usually thicker and meatier than American bacon and is cooked until done, rather than crispy. Where then did the corned beef come from? From the Jewish neighbors! Since pork is a forbidden food for Jews, they used corned beef, a cheaper substitute. Irish emigrants replaced the more expensive bacon with corned beef.
There could be a good chance that your own ancestry includes Irish. Irish is the second most reported ancestry behind German. There are 32.3 million US residents with Irish ancestry, which is seven times greater than the population of Ireland. Massachusetts claims over 20% of its population has Irish ancestry.
This St. Patrick’s Day celebrate hardy and show your Irish pride!
[Sources: Wikipedia, Smithsonian.com] –Liz Kennington