As we all should know, St. Patrick’s Day is a holiday created to commemorate the great St. Patrick. Despite current celebrations, the holiday was not always just about drinking green beer and shamrock shakes (though I am not really opposed to either). Rather, the day commemorates the arrival of Christianity in Ireland, which was a result of the lifetime work of St. Patrick.
St. Patrick, the Patron Saint of Ireland, was born a Roman-Britain in the 4th century. At the age of sixteen, he was kidnapped by Irish raiders who enslaved him in Gaelic Ireland for at least six years, and some say upwards of seventeen years. During that time, he found God, who told him a ship would be waiting for him if he fled to the Irish coast. He escaped to the ship which returned him home, where he entered priesthood. The word of God encouraged him to return back to Ireland in order to bring Christianity to the land. He spent years converting the pagans to Christianity, and as thanks many Christian churches have declared him a Saint in Heaven for his lifetime work. Therefore, his perceived day of death, March 17th, became a Feast Day (a religious celebration) and a day we now know as St. Patrick’s Day.
So how did a religious holiday become a day full of celebrations of debauchery? Well, that is a bit of a different story. It is mostly believed today’s celebrations were influenced by Irish migrants, who initially made celebrations around the world bigger than they ever were in Ireland. These Irish migrants were the reason behind our first tradition, corned beef and cabbage. As the migrants were mostly poor citizens of their respective countries, this meat and vegetable combo was about all they could afford at the time. Nonetheless, the combo is now a staple at most St. Patrick's Day celebrations.
Our next tradition, the wearing of shamrocks or green clothing, was a result of St. Patrick himself, with a little bit of Irish history sprinkled in. St. Patrick apparently used a shamrock to explain the Holy Trinity to the pagan Irish, therefore he was often pictured with a cross and a bundle of shamrocks. The color green was not actually adopted until 1798, the year of the Irish Rebellion. During the rebellion the British wore red, so the Irish chose to wear green, thus cementing the color as part of Irish, and St. Patrick's Day, history. Both of these reasons are why we adore our shamrock beads and our green clothing during the whole month of March.
A third (less fun) tradition, pinching people, is a product of Irish folklore. In folklore, leprechauns, who were fairy creatures, could see anyone who was not adorned in green. The leprechauns would then spend St. Patrick's Day running around pinching everyone they could see. Therefore, the tradition started as a little reminder that leprechauns could sneak up on you, and has turned into a mean little joke.
Finally, the tradition we've all been waiting for, the mass amount of drinking, is actually easily explained. Since March 17th falls during lent, the holiday became a reason to allow Christians a day off from their abstinence. This day off, as many could imagine, got out of control; and that tradition still stands pretty true today. We drink Guinness, a Dublin-based beer, and Jameson, an Irish whisky, simply to make us feel a little more Irish. But we aren't alone; 13+ million pints of Guinness are downed each St. Patrick’s Day around the world, making it a drink of choice wherever you may find yourself. As for the green beer? Well that was mostly a result of an old tradition where the Irish would put a clover in the bottom of their beer for good luck; but a little food coloring today will do the same trick.
That is all for my brief history. Have a safe St. Patrick’s Day everyone!
