St Patrick’s Day next week!
I should have heaps to write here, as a lover of anything Irish, but I wouldn’t have a clue. I suppose everyone knows about St Patrick, so I won’t bore you with this.
But !!!!!
Did you know:
- St Patrick’s Day is observed on 17 March because that is the feast day of St Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland. It is believed that he died on 17 March in the year 461 AD. It is also a worldwide celebration of Irish culture and history. St Patrick’s Day is a national holiday in Ireland, and a provincial holiday in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador
- Wearing green, eating green food and even drinking green beer, is said to commemorate St Patrick’s use of the shamrock in his teaching – although BLUE was the original colour of his vestments. Green, in Irish legends, was worn by fairies and immortals, and also by people to encourage their crops to grow.
- Apparently the Chicago River has been dyed green in honour of St Patrick’s Day since 1962 – can anybody verify this ??
- The very first St Patrick’sDay parade was not in Ireland, but in Boston in 1737!
- St Patrick’s isn’t a big drinking holiday in Ireland. In fact, many of the local pubs are closed for the day.
- At one time, there were more Irish living in NYC than in Dublin, Ireland
Hearts, Stars, and Horseshoes
Clovers and Blue moons
Pots of gold and rainbows,
And the red balloon
That’s the luck of me lucky charms!
Their magically delicious!
Enjoy your St Patrick’s Day !
Angela Schroeder
Patricia Kiyono
Elaine Cantrell
Jeff Salter
Joselyn
Tonette Joyce
Four Foxes, One Hound 
There are a lot of things about St.Patrick’s Day that aren’t common knowledge, Iris; people not of Irish descent or those whose families are far removed by many generations and lack of communication often have a skewed-view.
In Ireland, St.Patrick’s Day is a religious holiday, usually celebrated by going to church and visiting family.There is a dinner of traditional Irish foods,(especially ‘Colconnon’, a potato and cabbage dish), and people wear fresh shamrocks pinned to their clothes.Of course, you may well have some revelry at the local pubs,(try to stop them, given any excuse!), but green ‘freight-wigs’, green beer and of course calls of “Kiss me,I’m Irish” will not be seen or heard! The wearing of the color green is not essential in Ireland as it is in the U.S. and other places. Green is also the color representing “Catholic” Ireland, and St.Patrick is claimed by the Church.St.Patrick had been a slave taken to what was to become Ireland from somewhere in a Roman province.He loved the country and after his escape, vowed to become a priest and go back to convert the people, whom he felt were worth ‘saving’.(Of course, this was when there was ONE Christian Church, which Catholics claim to be heir to.) Although no one is sure of what his ethnic background ,since he was from a Roman province, my mother and any other Italian I know claim him as their own!
Just a little extra there for you;I won’t go one and on.There are a great number of people of Irish descent there with you in Australia,Iris. Poor Irish, prisoners and political prisoners were often sent into exile there as cheap &/or slave labor to build Australia as a British stronghold, which is one reason why you will sometimes hear of females being referred to as ‘sheilas’. “Sheila”, (or variant spellings), was a very Irish common name for Irish women during the big evacuations to “Down Under”, and it just seemed to the men that every one they met was a “Sheila”.
Nearly everyone claims to be Irish on St.Patrick’s Day in America and if you’d like, I will claim you for the day.I know you are proudly German, but , for one day, we can add an ‘h” to you name, IRIS!
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Oh, Tonette, don’t you worry, I’m wearing the “h” on my name quite often 😉 I looooooove anything Irish and have been to Ireland a couple of times. My first two books are partly set in Ireland and I’m looking foward to writing the sequel to my first book, so I can do the whole research thing again. And as you can see in the pic, I even go a bit silly when it comes to “pretend” being Irish. LOL.
thanks for the background. Yes, there’s soooo much more to St Patrick’s Day … it’s getting big here as well, especially in the big cities like Melbourne & Sydney.
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enjoyed the bits of history, Iris. I always find it interesting to delve beyond the current practices into the origins of things such as this.
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Thanks Jeff. Yup, sometimes it’s really worth checking out these things. I’m still waiting for someone to confirm the green river, though 😉
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Yes there is at least one U.S. city which “dyes” its river green. I thought it was Boston, but I may be mistaken about which city.
A couple of years ago there was a big flap from EPA, though, so it’s possible it’s since been outlawed. Ha.
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EPA ????
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environmental protection agency.
They have more power than FEMA and Congress and the Supreme Court and the Prez … all put together.
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They’re obviously not Irish AND party poopers !!!!!!!!
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cool facts. I’m a collector of facts and I love these
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Thanks Jillian! Ditto here. Love this stuff!
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Though I don’t know all of the details of St. Patrick’s Day, I do love the celebratory nature of it which hasn’t become overly commercialized…yet. For me, it’s an excuse to wear green (though I do wear it often due to the current haircolor being red) and fix corned beef and cabbage. Oh, and potatoes. Heaven knows we go through a lot of potatoes in my house…mostly because I have a kiddo on a gluten-free diet and she LOVES baked potatoes.
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Ok – potatoes? I’d rather go w/out food then eating potatoes …. sorry! You see potatoes on the dinner table, you know DH has prepared the meal 😉
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