A different way to look at St. Patrick's Day
For many college students, the holiday of St. Patrick’s Day is a day to drink green beer and do pretty much what they do every other weekend except in green attire. One thing to note though, that I am sure not many college students are aware of, is the origin of St. Patrick’s Day and why it is a holiday in the first place. It might actually alter your views on the holiday. According to a segment History.com, the holiday was centered on the Saint and is a religious feast day to celebrate his death. St. Patrick’s Day has been a part of the Irish heritage for over 1,000 years and traditionally is celebrated by attending church in the morning and celebrating the event in the afternoon. St. Patrick lived during the 5th century and was actually a captured as a slave and brought to Ireland. Once he was out of slavery he was thought of bringing Christianity to Ireland and once he died, supposedly on March 17, he became more celebrated in the Irish culture. Even though we use this holiday to drink more, up until the 1970s pubs were closed in Ireland on this day. It was actually not until 1995, when Ireland discovered the amount of tourists who would potentially come and see the culture on St. Patrick’s Day. Now there is a variety of festivities throughout Ireland on this day. Some of you may be wondering why we wear green for this holiday anyway. Well, according to the same History.com segment, the actual color associated with St. Patrick was blue. In fact, there is an actual shade of blue that is affiliated with St. Patrick. The color green became associated with the holiday because of the country of its origin, Ireland. Ireland is presently associated with the color green because of the beautiful greenery throughout the land and also because of the shamrock, or the four-leaf clover also associated with the holiday. Although, St. Patrick’s Day has and will forever be one of my favorite holidays, I definitely think of it differently after realizing the history behind it. Perhaps, this will make you think a little differently before you take a sip of your green alcoholic beverage on St. Patrick’s Day this year.
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