St. Patrick's Day

I never bothered to know the origins of St. Patty's until I had a blog that forces me to learn something new each day.

From History.com.



Who was St. Patrick?
St. Patrick was born in Britain in 390 AD and died on March 17, 460. His family wasn't that particularly religious; his father most likely became a deacon because of tax incentives. When Patrick was 16 years old, Irishmen attacked his family's estate and took the teenager as a prisoner in Ireland, where he would spend the next six years in captivity. There he worked as a shepherd, ostracized and afraid. It's at this point that he turned to his religion for inner peace, which eventually led to his devoutness.

One day Patrick escaped - according to his writings God spoke to him in a dream and told him to leave Ireland. While back in his native Britain, an angel must have overridden God because the angel told him, in a dream, to return to Ireland as a missionary. For fifteen years afterwards Patrick delved into religious study, down the path to his ordination as a priest. To convert the Irish, Patrick incorporated Irish pagan beliefs into his lessons (kinda like how the pope did with Christmas). He used their bonfires to celebrate Easter and put an image of a sun onto the Christian cross. This is now called the Celtic cross.

How did the holiday begin?
The first St. Patty's parade was held in New York (surprisingly). Irish soldiers serving in the English military marched in the streets of the city on March 17, 1762, with the music and the rest of the festivities helping reconnect them to their Irish roots. Over the next 35 years the strong patriotism among immigrants aided in the creation of the "Irish Aid" societies, groups that would hold annual parades featuring bagpipes.

In 1848 a number of New York Irish aid societies merged to form one big NYC parade. That parade is now the world's oldest civilian parade and the largest in the country. It attracts over 150,000 participants.

Of course, as with all holidays, St. Patrick's Day evolved into the rowdiness that we celebrate each year.

Check out the meanings behind the symbols and traditions of St. Patrick's Day.