On March 17, it’s a tradition to wear green or run the risk of getting pinched.While the snow has melted, the sun is back and the feeling of spring is starting to sink in. When this feeling approaches, the Shamrock Shake comes back, kids create leprechaun traps in an attempt to snag a pot of gold and Irish parades take to the streets in major cities.
According to history.com, article called History of St. Patrick’s Day, Christian missionary St. Patrick, who was born as Maewyn Succat, lived in the fifth century and is credited with bringing Christianity to Ireland. While he is heavily associated with Irish culture, he was born in Roman Britain and brought to Ireland as a slave at the age of 16. He worked as an animal herder for six years, but then escaped and went back to live with his family in Roman Britain. With his return to Roman Britain, he became a bishop and served his mission of spreading Christianity in northern and western Ireland.
Before St. Patrick converted the Irish, Ireland had been a nation that primarily believed in nature-based pagan religions. Patrick took that into account when he attempted to convert the Irish. He would mix Christianity with the pre-established religions, paganism and Celtic, to make Christianity more appealing to the Irish. He used the shamrock, a symbol that the Irish used to worship their gods, to represent the Holy Trinity of Christianity. He also created the Celtic cross, which incorporated the Irish symbol of the sun onto the Christian cross, according to Holdenbeachnbc.com.
Due to the time in which he lived, when the Catholic Church did not have saints, St. Patrick was never officially recognized as a saint in the Catholic Church. He was referred to as a saint starting in the 10th century by the public because of the number of converts he had.
Around the ninth century, the Irish started to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day as a religious and spiritual holiday in honor of St. Patrick. Originally pubs were ordered to be closed up until 1970. However in 1995, the Irish changed their approach to the holiday. They increased tourism by having parades and allowing establishments to stay open.
St. Patrick’s Day parades did not start in Ireland; they started in America. The first parade was in 1601, when Irish bishops in a Spanish colony, that is now part of Florida, organized it to celebrate their Irish heritage. A century later, in 1772, another parade was organized by homesick Irish soldiers in the British army in New York City. From then on, the excitement of the parades grew in New York, Boston and other major American cities.
In 1842, when the potato famine in Ireland struck over 9 million Irish people, many of them immigrated to America. Before the famine, the majority of Irish immigrants were Protestant, middle class and educated. However, with the famine, the lower-class Catholics from Ireland came to the U.S. Upon arrival, the new immigrants were portrayed negatively. Because of their unfamiliar accents and religious beliefs, they struggled to get entry-level jobs.
Irish Americans continued to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day to honor their heritage, but the media used their commemoration to portray the immigrants as “unsophisticated drunks.” This continued for almost a century before the Irish American population grew so much that Irish Americans gained lots of political power. In an attempt to gain the Irish American vote in 1948, President Harry Truman attended the New York St. Patrick’s Day parade.
Chicago is well-known for dyeing the Chicago River green on St. Patrick’s Day, a tradition started in 1962. The city’s pollution-control workers would release about 100 pounds of green vegetable oil into the river, which kept it colored for weeks. Nowadays, to minimize the environmental impact that dyeing the river causes, workers release about 40 pounds to keep it green for only a few hours.
The Shamrock Club of Columbus, led by President Megan Dempsey, shared the traditions that people in Columbus follow to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day.
“On the morning of St. Patrick’s Day, we proceed to St. Patrick’s Church where we have mass and then we parade down to the convention center where we have the Irish family reunion. There are about two to three thousand people who attend and it’s full of Irish culture, music and dances,” Dempsey said.
Another symbol of St. Patrick’s Day is the Leprechaun. Many American children set a trap for the Leprechaun the night before St. Patrick’s Day, eager for a pot of gold.
Although leprechauns are heavily associated with St. Patrick’s Day, they actually have nothing to do with the holiday itself. Given the history of how the holiday came to the States, it is seen by many Americans as a celebration of Irish culture.
Leprechauns were a part of Irish mythology and folktales, and were descendants of Tuatha De Danann, who were royalty with supernatural powers and were banished to live underground by the Irish people. These mythological creatures are about two to three feet tall and love to cause mischief. If they are caught by a human, they must grant three wishes in order to be free.
While people across the world celebrate differently, St. Patrick’s Day is a festive time to honor Irish culture across the world. Even though Americans originally saw the festivities as unsophisticated, they eventually embraced it and started their own traditions.
After all, “we’re Irish, we’re a lot of fun,” Dempsey said.
