March 14, 2009
Everybody is Irish on St. Patrick's Day
st patricks day coloring pages
St. Patrick's Day, the most auspicious of Irish celebrations, takes place annually March 17. The day is filled with parades, music, good food such as corned beef and cabbage. I have added some St. Patrick's Day coloring pages to help your children celebrate the holiday.
Ireland's biggest annual celebration, attracting over 1.3 million people. Patrick's Day celebrations now continue for four days! Ireland is often called the "Emerald Isle" because it is so green with vegetation. Ireland is a small country, about the same size as South Carolina, with a population of about 3.7 million, or about the same as metro Boston and vicinity.
There are more than 35 million people of Irish descent now living in the United States, most of them clustered in the northeast, but there are a great many Irish descendants in the Deep South. For many Irish people, St Patrick's Day is a holiday to commemorate their heritage — not a religious event — although many will wear a "shamrock" leaf that commemorates the "trinity."
St. Patrick is said to have driven the poisonous snakes from Ireland by beating a drum to drown them in the sea. In truth, there were never any such snakes there. He did lead the conversion of the people of Ireland to Christianity. Snakes symbolized the pagan ideologies of the Celts, who were driven out. Snakes have a cameo role on St. Patrick's Day, as do pigs, potatoes and horseshoes, symbolizing prosperity and luck.
March 17 is actually the date of the death of St. Patrick, not his birth. He lived during the fourth and fifth centuries. He was born in Britain, but was kidnapped and sold into slavery in Ireland. His original name was Maewyn Succat, but he changed it to "Patrick," which was more Christian. He worked as a slave-shepherd for six years, and then escaped to France, where he studied religion in a monastery to become a priest.
Years later, he heard the voice of the Irish "crying to thee, come hither and walk with us once more." Pope Clemens commissioned him to go to Ireland to convert the heathen. He was 60 years old when he arrived. His winning personality gave him great success. He built many churches and converted nearly all the people of the country to Christianity. He died in 461 A.D., and the date of his death has been commemorated since. St. Patrick's Day was first celebrated in the United States in 1737 in Boston.
There are traditional foods for St Patrick's Day. The most popular dish is corned beef and cabbage.
Leprechauns are believed to be little old men who make shoes for fairies and are usually about two feet tall. The legend says that if you catch a leprechaun, you can force them to tell you where they hid their pot of gold. It is told the leprechauns are the guardians of treasures hidden by the Danes when they marauded through Ireland.
