Every year on March 17th, you may get pinched or ridiculed if you don't wear green. An unusually large amount of green garments are seen around town, and gold coins are dispersed around grocery stores. Potatoes and green beer are a staple of diets on this holiday. Yes, St. Patrick's Day, one of my favorite holidays, is quickly approaching. While I have never had corned beef, I still embrace my Irish background by wearing all green (when I was younger, I was obsessed with the color and would take any opportunity to wear all green without getting weird looks).
Originally, I thought St. Patrick's Day was a holiday to celebrate Ireland and the leprechauns, but when I researched the holiday, I was surprised that all of the things I thought I knew about St. Paddy's day were actually fictional. Lo and behold:
1. Saint Patrick wasn’t (originally) from Ireland
St. Patrick was born in the 5th century in Britain during the Roman Empire, not Ireland, like many people suspect. However, when Patrick was 16 years old, he was kidnapped by Irish pirates who raided his village. The pirates travelled to Ireland and Patrick spent six years in captivity and was a slave to care for sheep for the Irish. During his confinement, Patrick found solace in God and faith and converted to Christianity. He escaped captivity when God sent him a message in his dream that said he would soon return to his hometown. Patrick escaped from his master to Britain and strengthened his faith. He had a vision that he was destined to be a Saint, so he acted on the vision and returned to Ireland as a Christian missionary. This is when Patrick became St. Patrick.
2. The Irish didn’t care about St. Patrick
Well, the Irish care about St. Patrick now, but after St. Patrick’s death, he was virtually forgotten. At the time, people didn’t think St. Patrick was special, or even worthy to be celebrated at all. Eventually, myths and legends about St. Patrick developed, and centuries after his death, he was honored as Patron of Saint Ireland. He is now revered as the man who brought Christianity to Ireland by converting the Picts and Anglo-Saxons to Christianity.
3. St. Patrick didn’t drive all of the snakes out of Ireland
One famous myth about St. Patrick was that he drove all of the snakes out of Ireland, symbolizing the cleanse of paganism. However, the myth is geographically impossible because Ireland never had any snakes due to the water surrounding Ireland being too cold for them to migrate and live there. Nevertheless, the myth continues to be told when March 17th rolls around, famously displayed by the Simpsons episode, “Whacking Day,” when Springfield celebrates the fictional holiday and the citizens drive the snakes to the center of Springfield and whack them with clubs.
4. St. Patrick never wore green
The original color associated with St. Patrick was blue. He wore clothing that was described as “St. Patrick Blue,” but green became associated with Ireland because of the Emerald Isle and green of the landscape and the shamrock. The tradition of wearing green on March 17th is derived from picking shamrock and putting it on your suit. Then, with the United Irish Uprising in 1798, they took that tradition and applied it to nationalist propaganda, translating it into all garment. The Irish uniforms were green, and in America, wearing green became an identity marker that you came from Ireland.
5. St. Patrick’s Day parades did not originate in Ireland
St. Patrick's Day parades actually started in America. Parade tradition took off after the Great Potato Famine struck Ireland in the 1840s, sending thousands of Irish immigrants to America. The first record of a St. Patrick's parade was in New York in 1762, when a group of Irish soldiers (serving with British) walked a few miles to a tavern in lower Manhattan. Now, the New York St. Patrick’s parade is one the of most popular parades in America with deep tradition.
6. Corned Beef wasn’t eaten in Ireland
Corned Beef, cabbage, potatoes, and Irish soda bread are the epitome of “traditional” Irish grub, along with beer, of course. On March 17th, many Americans celebrate the holiday by eating the traditional food and drinking green beer. However, corned beef was not eaten in Ireland, making it yet another tradition America introduced. In Ireland, they mostly ate a variety of sausages, but when the Irish migrated to New York, they intermingled neighborhoods with the Jewish, who sold a much cheaper form of beef— the brisket. Cabbage, on the other hand, was brought to America by the Celts. The Celts brought cabbage to Europe and Asia in 600 BC, thus bringing the vegetable to America. Irish soda bread was essentially a science experiment performed by the Irish. The didn't have access to yeast so they came up with a concoction of proofing the bread with baking soda resulting in Irish soda bread.
So with St. Patrick's Day fast approaching, let your friends and family in on these little secrets and see if they know if they any other fun facts.
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