Everybody loves St. Patrick’s Day. I imply, how are you going to not love a enjoyable competition about consuming beer, sporting inexperienced, and getting along with household and mates? It is the final word celebration of Irish tradition. And with tens of millions of individuals all over the world sharing Irish roots, it really has grow to be a worldwide celebration.
Fun Facts about St. Patrick’s Day
After visiting Ireland a number of instances we’ve got been fortunate sufficient to be a part of our share of Irish celebrations. There is a purpose that St Patrick’s day is likely one of the most enjoyable celebrations all over the world. So, head out to the Beer Store (all you Canadians) and seize your cans of Guinness, put in your inexperienced shirt, and let’s get celebrating!
1. Saint Patrick was Not Irish
Saint Patrick, a patron Saint of Ireland was really English. More precisely, he’s believed to have been from Wales or Scotland. He was dropped at Ireland as a slave round 432 AD. however escaped and after hanging out in Ireland working as a shepherd for just a few years, he returned to England to grow to be a priest. He then later returned to Ireland as a Christian missionary.
2. The Feast of St. Patrick
After St. Patrick’s loss of life, Ireland devoted a day to him generally known as the Feast of St. Patrick. The date of March 17 was chosen as a result of that was his loss of life day. St. Patrick died on March 17, in Downpatrick Ireland. Back then, loss of life days had been extra essential than birthdays. Nobody actually knew what day they had been born, but when they grew to become someone, everybody knew their date of loss of life.
Thus the Feast of St. Patrick was celebrated yearly on the loss of life day of the patron saint. It was a day of feasts and non secular ceremonies. So, when St. Patrick’s Day rolls round this yr, let’s make it a feast day too!
3. No Beer!
Since it was generally known as the Feast of St. Patrick, St. Patrick’s day was initially a dry vacation. No beer was to be discovered. Instead, St. Patrick’s Day was a day of non secular ceremonies and feasts. In reality, it wasn’t till lately that Ireland began celebrating St. Patrick’s day with the identical alcoholic vigor because the United States.
It has solely been extra lately that beer and hearty celebrations have grow to be extra standard in Ireland. Some have mentioned that it was in 2016 when celebrating 100 years of Irish independence that St. Patrick’s Day actually began to take off in Ireland. But from what I can inform, it’s been going robust in Dublin for many years.
4. Four Leaf Clover
Contrary to standard perception, the four-leaf clover is just not related to St. Patrick’s Day. While the four-leaf clover is taken into account fortunate and is linked with luck in each Irish tradition and all over the world, it’s really the three-leaf Shamrock that’s linked to Saint Patrick.
5. The Shamrock
Recently we had a zoom assembly with some distinguished St. Patrick’s specialists the place we discovered a bit concerning the traditions of St. Patrick’s Day in Ireland. They advised us that it was essential to put on a Shamrock and a badge for the St. Patrick’s Day festivities. The larger the higher. This custom has been happening in Ireland for the reason that seventeenth century!
The Shamrock has all the time been thought-about a sacred plant to the Celts and Irish. The solely purpose they may give you it being related to St. Patrick’s day is that it’s believed that St. Patrick used it for example when explaining the Holy Trinity whereas bringing Christianity to Ireland. The three leaves are used to signify, the Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost.
6. Green Was Not the Colour of Choice
Here is a reality I didn’t know, the National colour of Ireland was blue! Blue was all the time related to Ireland and St. Patrick’s Day till the nineteenth century when Ireland grew to become extra intertwined with the colour inexperienced. The Emerald Isle embraced the inexperienced altering their flag to the colours of Green White and Orange.
It wasn’t till Irish Independence that the colour inexperienced grew to become the image of Ireland. But inexperienced has all the time performed a robust function in Irish tradition with the Shamrock and the inexperienced harp flag utilized by the Irish Catholic confederation within the 1600s.
7. First St. Patrick’s Day Parade
After performing some analysis, I discovered that America first celebrated St. Patrick’s day in 1601, in St. Augustine, Florida. It was organized by the Irish vicar of the Spanish colony. (this may increasingly or will not be true, as a result of in keeping with Ireland tourism, it was certainly first celebrated in 1737 in Boston)
Regardless, the St. Patrick’s Day parade actually took maintain when it was held in Boston and New York City in 1737. It was the Irish members of the British Battalion who got here residence feeling homesick and nostalgic. They got here collectively for the primary St. Patrick’s Day Parade to rejoice their Irish tradition.
And, now, as they are saying, the remaining is historical past. America celebrates St. Patrick’s day with extra vigor than Ireland! But Ireland has been gaining pace previously few a long time and St. Patrick’s Day will probably be perpetually linked with Irish tradition all over the world.
8. Downpatrick, Ireland
If you make a pilgrimage to Ireland within the close to future (which we extremely suggest, it’s our favorite nation to go to!) you may see the grave of St. Patrick within the city of Downpatrick. Located in County Down in Northern Ireland, Down Cathedral dates again to 1183 and homes the stays of St. Patrick. In Downpatrick, they rejoice the life and legend of St. Patrick all yr lengthy.
9. St. Patrick’s Centre in Northern Ireland
The St. Patrick’s Centre in Downpatrick is the one middle on this planet devoted totally to St. Patrick. There’s an Imax expertise telling And they even have their very own Camino on St. Patrick’s Way. I’m completely doing this once we return to Ireland.
10. The Rock of Cashel – Aka St. Patrick’s Rock
Not solely is it a good looking place to go to in Ireland, The Rock of Cashel in Tipperary, is related to St. Patrick. It was right here that he baptized King Aengus, Ireland’s first Christian chief. But I like this legend a lot better: It is alleged that St. Patrick banished Satan from a mountain cave. In a fury Satan took a chunk from the mountain and spat it out, thus creating the Rock of Cashel. With 1000 years of historical past, it is likely one of the coolest locations in Ireland that we visited.
11. The Myth of the Snakes
I by no means actually knew this earlier than, however legend has it that St. Patrick drew all of the snakes out of Ireland. Well, apparently, snakes by no means lived in Ireland.
12. Leprechauns and St. Patrick’s Day
Many related St. Patrick’s Day with Leprechauns proper? Well, they don’t have anything to do with St. Patrick. Leprechauns are part of the Irish tradition in Irish folklore. They had been little individuals who favored to play sensible jokes on others. During my analysis, I learn that Walt Disney sparked the connection in his film, Darby O’Gill & the Little People starring Sean Connery. (I’m completely going to lease this film on St. Paddy’s Day)
13. Celebrating Irish Culture – St. Patrick’s Day Traditions
People began dying their beer inexperienced within the early 1900s. The river runs by means of Chicago within the US. (The Chicago River, is dyed inexperienced every year!) People all over the world with Irish Ancestry collect for this historical Irish Feast Day. Some 70 million folks all over the world have Irish Ancestry. Dave and I included! Dave really has actually deep Irish blood. Check out Dave discovering his Irish Roots right here. Irish Americans eat corned beef and cabbage on St. Patrick’s Day. This is just not an Irish custom. In Ireland, they ate ham. Buildings everywhere in the world mild up in Green on St. Patrick’s Day. I’m going to maintain a watch out for the CN Tower this yr!
In conclusion
So now that you recognize a bit extra about St. Patrick’s Day while you cheer your pint of Guinness and put on your inexperienced, give a nod to the Patron Saint of Ireland who began all of it. Or maybe, we must always pay tribute extra to the homesick Irish immigrants in America who got here to rejoice their homeland.
Whatever the explanation, St. Patrick’s day is well known all over the world by means of gatherings of inexperienced and Guinness. We’ve traveled the world, and I can say that there’s an Irish pub in almost each metropolis on this planet. The Irish are undoubtedly doing one thing proper celebrating life with a sure Joie de Vivre.
Happy St. Patricks Day everybody. Or as they are saying in Ireland, “Lá Fhéile Pádraig Sona Dhuit. (Law Fey-la Paw-rick Sun-a-dit)