COMMENTARY: Things you didn’t know about Saint Patrick’s Day

Patrick is the patron saint of Ireland and its national apostle. He is credited with evangelizing pagan Ireland and establishing Christianity there in the 5th century.  Patrick was not native to Ireland. Born Maewyn Succat in 386 A.D. in Roman Britain, the son of a tax collector and Catholic deacon, Maewyn was not religious in his youth.

Marc K. Ensign has been active in community and business affairs for many years, and lives in Paradise.

At the age of 16, he was kidnapped by Celtic raiders and taken across the Irish Sea as a slave. For the next six years he would tend his master’s sheep among the hills and remote cliffs of western Ireland. It was a hungry, bleak time during which Maewyn turned to the faith of his fathers for comfort.

One night he dreamed he would soon go home, that a ship was ready and waiting to take him. Setting out on foot, he walked 200 miles across the island, found the vessel, and persuaded its captain to take him back to Britain.

After returning home, and now studying for the ministry, Maewyn dreamed again, this time that the people of Ireland were calling him back to walk among them. He finished his studies and upon ordination as a bishop, took the name of Patrick to return to Ireland and shepherd again, this time for God as a Christian missionary.

Converting the pagans was fraught with danger, and Patrick narrowly escaped death many times. Through his persistence however, he found a method that eventually succeeded: He popularized his faith by harnessing the knowledge he’d gained of the native language, culture, and religion during his time in slavery, and used this to merge Irish lore and celebrations with Christianity.

He moved the dates of early Christian events to dates that were sacred to the pagans and merged Christian symbols with pagan ones so that the new religion would be more easily assimilated. For example, he used the shamrock, a three-leaf clover, to explain the Holy Trinity. In pagan Ireland, three was a significant number and the Irish had many triple deities.

Patrick grafted Christianity onto pagan traditions with so much skill, he won the people over to the Christian religion before they understood the difference. During his ministry, Patrick established many churches, schools, and monasteries throughout the emerald isle.

After 40 years of living in poverty, teaching, traveling, and working tirelessly, devoting his life to God and the people of Ireland, Patrick died on March 17, in A.D. 461.

Following Patrick’s death, the mythology surrounding his life became ever more ingrained in Irish culture. In the 9th or 10th century, people of Ireland began observing an annual feast day dedicated to St. Patrick. Families would attend church in the morning and then celebrate in the afternoon. They danced, drank, and feasted on the traditional meal of Irish bacon and cabbage.

Although a holy day in Ireland, it was emigrants to America who transformed St. Patrick’s Day into a largely secular holiday of revelry and celebration of all things Irish:

-Parades:  Boston held its first St. Patrick’s Day parade in 1737, followed by New York City in 1762. Boasting over 150,000 participants, nearly 3 million people line the New York City parade route annually to watch the procession. More than 100 St. Patrick’s Day parades are now held across the United States, including one in Salt Lake City.

-Shamrocks:  The shamrock was a sacred plant in ancient Ireland, symbolizing the rebirth of spring. By the 17th century, the shamrock had also become a symbol of emerging Irish nationalism. As the English began to seize their land and make laws against using the Irish language and practicing Catholicism, many Irish began to wear the shamrock as a symbol of pride in their heritage and defiance of the crown.

-Food:  Each St. Patrick’s Day, thousands of Irish Americans gather with loved ones to share a traditional meal of corned beef and cabbage. Although cabbage was long an Irish staple, corned beef was not. Irish immigrants living on New York City’s Lower East Side substituted corned beef for their traditional dish of Irish bacon to save money, learning of the cheaper alternative from their Jewish neighbors.

Many Americans color their food green for the holiday. Pubs serve green beer. If you’re a drinker, you can enjoy a traditional Irish 7-course meal…a potato and a six-pack (that’s a joke).

-Wearing green:  Here’s where the leprechauns come in. Leprechauns stem from the Celtic belief in fairies, tiny people who use their magical powers for good or evil…mostly evil. They are cranky souls, known for their trickery. Legend has it that if you wear green on St. Patrick’s Day, you are invisible to them, and they won’t bother you. However, if you don’t wear green, they’ll pinch you all the day long in their maleficence.

Did you know that Leprechauns have their own holiday on May 13th? I suggest you cover yourself in green from head to toe on that day…they’ll be out in full force!

And speaking of green, in a leprechaun-worthy shenanigan, since 1962 Chicago has dyed its river green to mark the holiday.

-Irish music and storytelling:  The Celts had an enduring oral culture, where religion, legend, and history were passed from one generation to the next by way of stories and songs. Storytelling and singing were honored professions, with men traveling from city to city and house to house, performing for a few coins, a meal, or a bed for the night.

-Snakes:  Legend claims that Patrick once stood on a hilltop and with only a wooden staff by his side, banished all the snakes from Ireland. Truth is however, that there have never been snakes in Ireland, due to its separation from the mainlands of Britain and Europe.

“Banishing the snakes” is a metaphor for eradicating pagan ideology and the triumph of Christianity, the lifelong work of Saint Patrick of Ireland.

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I hope you’ve enjoyed this short commentary on the origin and traditions of Saint Patrick’s Day. I’ve had an affinity for all things Irish since serving a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints there back in 1980/81. My blood runs green, and I hope that for at least one day a year, yours does too. Thanks for reading.

Erin go bragh!

 

Marc K. Ensign

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