Wednesday the 17th of March is Saint Patrick’s Day. People all over the US and Ireland will be celebrating the holiday. We will be delving into the history behind this holiday.
Saint Patrick’s Day began as a holiday celebrating the death of the Saint Patrick. The story of his life is rather vague and historians had to piece it together manually, but eventually an agreement was reached.
He was born to a poor Christian family in England. In his teens he was captured and brought to Ireland by slave traders. In his book Confession he said that during this time he felt he was brought closer to God. He said that God had helped him make it through. One day, he said, God spoke to him saying that he would be free. He ran down to a nearby harbor where a merchant's boat was waiting for his to sail to England. When St. Patrick reached land he was met by wilderness but no food sources. It is said he prayed to God for help, and the next day a wild boar crossed their path. After living in England for a period he moved back to Ireland to become a preacher.
There he taught Catholicism to the Irish. It is said that he used the shamrock, a clover, to represent the Holy Trinity (The Father, The Son, The Holy Spirit). He assisted people during a famine, bringing prosperity back to the land. In 461 AD, he returned to England after having converted hundreds of Irish to Catholicism. He stayed there, until it is said he felt he was dying. For his death he wished to be in Ireland and died after his return on March 17th at the age of 76.
Over time the religious holiday, turned into a day to a secular holiday to celebrate being Irish. The expansion of the holiday occurred when there was an influx of Irish immigrants to America. In 1737 the American city of Boston held the first Saint Patrick’s Day parade, followed closely by New York. To begin with blue was St. Patricks color however people began sporting green to represent the shamrocks. As Irish immigrants emigrated within the US St. Patrick’s Day became a well-known holiday.
In the present day, the 17th of March people across America wear green, eat corned beef, cabbage, drink green beer, and gather to watch the parades. These parades would be filled with Irish American music, Irish dancing and lots of food. This was soon brought over to Ireland. They saw how popular it was in the US and decided to start their own secular celebrations as a tourist attraction
Irish dance school preforming for parade
Many people still celebrate the religious holiday for St. Patrick and the miracles he performed, but the secular holiday is more commonly celebrated by Irish and Non-Irish alike.
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