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| St. Patrick's Day - What You Didn't Know By: Krystle Merchant Like many other holidays, St. Patrick’s Day is not quite the same now as when it first started. Though the day has been celebrated by the Irish for their patron saint for thousands of years, the green-wearing, kid-pinching, pub-drinking St. Patty’s we all know and love is more than little bit different from the original celebration. In Ireland, the celebration was a day to feast and be merry during the Christian season of Lent. Pubs were closed because it was a religious holiday and green was not a popular color to sport all day. And there certainly wasn’ t any pinching! It was Irish soldiers fighting for the British army during the French and Indian War that started the first parade! It was a way to show their Irish pride and unite them to one another in their new country. The holiday really gained popularity after the Potato Famine in 1845 which sent more than a million Irish immigrants over to the United States in search of land and food. As you may remember from history class, they faced a lot of discrimination and terrible conditions. March 17 was the one day a year where they could showcase the pride they had for their Irish heritage and ignore their status in America. As Irish people gained more acceptance and power in this country, the celebration of their patron saint spread. President Truman is the first president to have attended a St. Patrick’s Day event. The popular symbols of the holiday are the shamrock and the leprechaun. The shamrock was allegedly used by St. Patrick himself to explain the concept of the Christian Holy Trinity. Afterwards, it became the symbol for the growth of Irish pride and nationalism because of its appearance in the spring, a time of rebirth. The leprechaun on the other hand was a part of the Celtic belief in fairies. He was known as the grumpy cobbler of the fairies’ shoes who hid his large treasure from everyone. It is unclear how exactly he went from being a mythical being to a character in a Walt Disney cartoon, but the portrayal of the leprechaun that we see today comes mostly from the Disney picture! The holiday will always have its roots in the Irish culture and represent the pride that comes with being Irish, but these days, it is more of a fun time than a call to ethnic unity. So, if you are Irish, wear your green, pin a shamrock onto your shirt and show your Irish pride! If not, do those same two things and just have some fun! |
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