St. Paddy's Day

Tweet

Green is worn on March 17th to celebrate, and show honor to the Emerald Isle (or Ireland). Saint Patrick's Day is a cultural and religious celebration that is actually the date of the death of Saint Patrick. Mass is held and there are parades and other celebrations on this day. So, on this day we wear green, four-leaf clover-shaped pins, and feel lucky to be Irish. We dye our rivers, beer, and bagels green. St. Patrick is said to have died March 17, around 460 C.E. He was believed to have been born in Britain. He was kidnapped as a teenager and sent to Ireland. He escaped Britain in his 20s and returned to Ireland later in his life to do missionary work. A lot of stories surround the life of St. Patrick and the most popular is that of him driving all the snakes out of Ireland. There are no known snakes that actually live in Ireland however. St. Patrick was actually associated with the color blue but, during the Irish Rebellion of 1798 Irish chose the color green which helped to associate the holiday and the country. One reason we wear green on this day is the green stripe found on the Irish flag and it has to do with the nickname, The Emerald Isle, given to Ireland. Green also represents the Catholics of Ireland and the orange is for the Protestant population. The white in between these two(on the flag) signifies the peace between these two religions.