By Barre, Sebastien on Flickr.
By: Victoria Hung
Leprechauns, pots of gold, lucky charms, four leaf clovers, and the colour green! All are wonderful representations of the modern view of our annual St. Patrick’s Day celebration. Apart from all of these famous festivities, many people are unaware of the origin of St. Patrick’s Day, a history that has immensely more depth in its value and significance than any other subsequent observances.
St. Patrick is the Patron Saint of Ireland who was born and named Maewyn Succat, but changed his name to Patricius or Patrick, which means “father figure” in Latin. He was a Roman citizen who became enslaved and sent to Ireland. After being released from Ireland for a period of time, he became a priest and went back to this country and converted numerous individuals of the Druid culture into Christians. St. Patrick died around the fifth century.
The yearly celebration on March 17 began in 1631, during which the Church marked a Feast Day honouring the anniversary of St. Patrick’s death. In order to retain a ceremonious mood on this day rather than attract an uninhibited crowd of drinkers (due to the Lenten alcohol restrictions being temporarily removed), the Church decided to associate a botanical item– the lucky shamrock– with St. Patrick.
In 1798, during the year of the Irish Rebellion, many Irishes chose to wear green while singing “The Wearing of the Green.” This thus cemented the colour’s relevance in Irish history and became officially associated with St. Patrick’s Day.
Read More About St. Patricks Day.
Work Cited
Ross, Ashley. “St. Patrick’s Day and the True Story of Saint Patrick.” TIME, 16 March 2016, https://time.com/4261456/st-patrick-day-2016-history-real-saint/. Accessed 22 February 2023.
Titan Times 