I hope you are “wearing the green” today, because, if not, you might get pinched!
Today is St. Patrick’s Day, the day everyone is Irish. But did you know that St. Patrick wasn’t Irish? At least not by birth.
St. Patrick was born in Roman Britain in a place called Bannavem Taberniae. It is not known what part of Roman Britain that might have been. His was a wealthy family. His father was a Christian deacon, although Patrick himself was not particularly religious.
When Patrick was 16 years old he was kidnapped by a group of Irish raiders who sold him into slavery in Ireland. For six years he was a slave. He was a shepherd and in the lonely days and nights he spent tending his sheep, he turned to the religion of his childhood for solace and strength.
He later wrote that he heard God’s voice telling him he should leave Ireland. He walked 200 miles to the coast and talked himself onto a ship that sailed to France. While in France Patrick studied for the priesthood. He wanted to return to Ireland to serve the Christian communities there and to convert the Celts who worshiped the sun.
The rest is, as you might say, history. Or at least legend. Patrick did not actually chase all the snakes from Ireland, and he didn’t introduce Christianity to Ireland, but he did make conversion easier by incorporating pagan practices into Christian worship. He put together the symbol of a sun with the Christian cross, creating the Celtic cross.
So lets all dine on corned beef and cabbage and raise our glasses of green beer to St. Patrick. But let’s keep our celebration under control. When I attended Ohio University, its spring break always fell on the week of St. Patrick’s Day. That was because the students used to get rowdy on St. Patrick’s Day and run through the town breaking windows and such.
I’ll be Irish today, though when I asked my mother and aunt one day during which potato famine did our ancestors flee Ireland, their answer was, “Ireland? Well, I suppose we might have had an Irish ancestor, but our family came from Alscace Lorainne.”
Mon Dieu!
(It is snowing here in Virginia on St. Patrick’s Day. Here’s the scene on our deck)
(Hurry up, spring!!!!!)
LOL Thanks for the history cap. 🙂
Happy St.Pats!!! Oh dear I’m not wearing green today, haven’t been pinched (yet). Did remember the date/celebration early this morning, but we are not doing anything typically Irish. Will definitely be eating green veg for dinner. Just leek instead of cabbage, it’s the color that counts ;D
That’s the spirit, Jo’s Daughter!!
I am wearing green, but mostly because St Patrick’s Day came early in the week. I own several green tops but other years, I’ve forgotten to save them and by the time St Patrick’s Day came they were already in the laundry.
I’ll listen to some Celtic music tonight and maybe have some Guinness. That’s about as wild as it gets over here. 🙂
No breaking windows and carousing through the town for you, eh, Elena?
I’m snowed in…..not much carousing here.
Jeepers! Snow this late in VA sure seems strange (or it certainly would have been back when I was in college there). Spring has sprung out West. It was 85 on Saturday. Well into the 70s today. But then we never really had winter this year. The rest of the nation had (has?) the Polar Vortex. We had the Solar Vortex.
Good Lord! More snow, O Divine One? We have had a miserable few days here in Alabama with lots of rain. And this evening it is chilly again. My sister-in-law thinks we should look into getting medication for Mother Nature as she seems a bit bipolar with our weather here in the South!
I did remember to wear my green pen at work. We aren’t allowed to vary our Walmart work clothes much, but as I always have at least two pens tucked into my shirt pocket my green one came in handy today.
And yes, I am having corned beef this evening, minus the cabbage of which I am not terribly fond. I made myself a lovely Reuben to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day !