St. Patrick's Day History: What You Need To Know

St. Patrick's Day is celebrated each year on March 17th. This day marks the accepted date in 493 CE of St. Patrick's death.

As St. Patrick is the figure most prominently associated with bringing Christianity to Ireland, St. Patrick's Day is celebrated by the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland as a solemnity and holy day of obligation. The holiday is also officially celebrated by the Church of Ireland, the Irish branch of the Anglican Communion. The day is marked with special liturgical programs and a breaking of Lenten fasts.

Few historical details are known about St. Patrick's mission to Ireland, although innumerable popular legends are associated with his work and play a major role in Irish culture. The shamrock's association with St. Patrick's Day comes from the popular myth that says St. Patrick used the three leaves of the plant to explain Catholicism's holy trinity to the Irish.

The holiday is also widely celebrated as a secular celebration of Irish culture. Cities around the world hold St. Patrick's Day parades and festivals to mark the occasion, with many people participating in the "wearing of the green." Popularized by Irish immigrant communities, festivities usually include traditional Irish food and drink such as corned beef and Guinness beer.

Comments

[Giglawyer]

02:09 PM on 03/22/2011

This is one of the lamer attempts by Huffpo at search engine optimization.

"Cities around the world hold St. Patrick's Day parades and festivals to mark the occasion, with many people participating in the "wearing of the green." Popularized by Irish immigrant communities, festivities usually include traditional Irish food and drink such as corned beef and Guinness beer."

Really - we needed to know this? Like this was a secret? LAME.

[ninetailedfox]

01:29 PM on 03/22/2011

Celebate all you want Jesus freaks your religion is at an end. Then me and my non Xian friends will be celebrating the death of Christianity.

[ninetailedfox]

09:34 AM on 03/19/2011

This is for anyone that likes to bad mouth me. I am a Native American female, and an Ex christian. You can say I wasnt a real christian all you like, but I was one for several years. Reguardless of how you feel about your own beliefs, I have been emotionally, physically and mentally abused by christians. So, anyone who thinks Im a bad person, needs to walk a mile in my shoes before they make snap judgements about a person they barely know. Im going to drink coffee on this holiday, because coffee is beer's polar opposite.

[InYourWorld]

01:34 PM on 03/19/2011

okay........................

[Caroline Mackenzie]

06:46 PM on 03/19/2011

Religions of all kinds give bad people a good excuse to do bad things. That's why, of course, there are so many religious denominations - it allows those so inclined to select the excuse that's the "best fit" for pre-existing or desired behaviors. As say, in the case of a man who would like to have several wives. In this sense, religion is not a vehicle to "higher standards" but rather an approval system that requires, really, no change at all. Those backed by (and isolated within) such an approval system feel empowered and justified to "act", and in the process others suffer. As with Native Americans abused and disempowered by Christians, or women suppressed by the Taliban. The examples are of course endless. No doubt there are those who are genuinely "good" or at least "harmless" amongst the religiously-minded but perhaps it could be said that they are so "in spite of" rather than "because of" their religion. Genuine humanity - the unqualified desire to do what we can for each and EVERY person encountered - does not require an "instruction manual", and it most certainly does not need approval.

[Seaniebhoy]

02:05 PM on 03/22/2011

Religion - if used improperly - is a tool like any other to be abused for power's sake. Those in power, or looking to expand their power base will use religion on the under-educated masses in order to bring them under control. That is not the fault of religion but the fault of the person....to say otherwise is to condone the atricities commited by humans and blame them on an intangable idea.

[kandem]

12:12 AM on 03/19/2011

Question: Is it St. PaTTy's day or St. PaDDy's day?? I was hoping for some useful info from the article, but alas....

[Caroline Mackenzie]

06:00 PM on 03/19/2011

Answer: It is ST. PADDY'S. This is the correct (Irish) abbreviation of Patrick, used throughout the UK
An Irish person would NEVER say "St. Patty's".
Patty is a girl's name (in itself and as an abbreviation of Patricia).
It must drive a visiting Irishman crazy seeing "St. Patty's" everywhere. If people are celebrating their Irish heritage, shouldn't they at least get it right?

[kandem]

07:43 PM on 03/19/2011

That's what I thought. ;-)

[iLdoRight]

10:06 PM on 03/17/2011

Who other than Our Creator can declare someone to be a "Saint", Jesus indicated at Matthew 20:23 that His Father had the position of such authority, and the Scripture at 1Samual 16:7 indicates that God looks on people in a way that is different than the way humans look on people. How well do we know this "Patrick", if (not saying he did) have lies that he liked, according to God's Word at Revelation 21:27 he would not have his name written in the "Book of Life". Can anyone who's name is not written in the "Book of Life" be a "Saint" ?

[michelesda]

03:33 PM on 03/18/2011

You seem to be taking this whole business a lot more seriously than the Irishmen I know ever seem to want to do. In Ireland proper, where the Church has lately been losing ground of course, la sona naom porrig seems traditionally to have been kept as just one of those dour Catholic feast days, as opposed to diaspora Irishmen, such as in America, where Irish enthusiasts seem to have nationalized the holiday into some kind of retroheathenish Hibernian Carnivale, functioning more as a focus of "green" Irishness and the occasion of Guinness Brewery's Black Friday than as a celebration of the life of a Saint of whom few Irishmen of my acquaintance seem to know all that many useful particulars. (Other than that he began his career as a Welshman, of course.) Not being Irish myself, for me it's mainly just an occasion for being kissed by a lot of really pretty girls, but hey, any excuse for a party.

[brokerthanu]

09:43 PM on 03/17/2011

I find it interesting that the day celebrates St. Patrick's death. Usually we celebrate our heros' births not their deaths. The last death I remember seeing celebrated was Pinochet's. I think some might have celebrated Nixon's as well. I couldn't help but notice that the day falls very close to the Spring Equinox in keeping with the church's tradition of usurping older festivities and declaring them xtian.

[syntax facit saltum]

09:46 PM on 03/17/2011

Christian saints are always commemorated on the date of their death--the day they have "completed the race" to paraphrase St. Paul.

[stuoverit]

04:46 PM on 03/17/2011

What do you need to know:

Eat bread, communion wafers soak up alcohol if enough are consumed.

Also, if you're mixing liquor and other alcohol, start with the highest proof and work your way down, not the other way around or you'll end up on the ground or in a cop car downtown.

[ninetailedfox]

04:00 PM on 03/17/2011

Im not here for christians to ridicule me. Im here to warn them, because I know their fate. But, if they want to go to the hell they assume I go to, go right ahead and mock me. Christians obviously dont care about where they go, because their ego gets in the way. They can assume whatever they want, but im tired of christians pushing for a theocracy. I push back, and I can make it hurt if I have to.

[Pastafarian Pirate]

04:56 PM on 03/17/2011

FSM agrees

[Shanard]

07:25 PM on 03/17/2011

How do you know where the Christians go? Do you have any empirical evidence?

[ninetailedfox]

03:26 PM on 03/17/2011

patrick was nothing but a criminal. I like Celtic Paganism, and its a shame that christians cant respect other cultures outside theirs.

[syntax facit saltum]

03:42 PM on 03/17/2011

Celtic pagan pirates kidnapped Patrick when he was 16 years old and forced him into slavery in Ireland. He made the best of those years by spending them in constant prayer and thus became a spiritual man. He was able to escape from pagan slavery by walking over 200 miles to a ship that took him off the island. He returned after clerical training because in a dream he heard the voices of the people of Ireland asking him to return.

[ninetailedfox]

03:46 PM on 03/17/2011

Patrick sailed on his own accord in his 20s, what you just told me was revisionist history purpotrated by the catholic church.

[ninetailedfox]

03:47 PM on 03/17/2011

He returned after clerical training because in a dream he heard the voices of the people of Ireland asking him to return. That sounds like bull as well.

[butchcliff]

09:07 AM on 03/19/2011

What culture (religion) does respect other religions outside theirs?
With respect..you & yours don't seem to. It's not just Christians

[Tao-Chan]

02:20 PM on 03/17/2011

We have a holiday for all the popular bad stuff here.
Chrisitmas to celebrate overconsumtion
Valentine's Day to celebrate sex and lust
Thanksgiving to celebrate gluttony
Columbus day to celebrate kicking indigenous people off thier ancestral lands
St. Patirck's Day and New Years Eve to celebrate public drunkenness
New Years Day to celebrate hangovers
Fourth of July to celebrate war and killin'

[Roland19]

02:23 PM on 03/17/2011

Kind of a "The glass is half empty, and the water in the glass is toxic" sort of fellow, eh? :-P

[ninetailedfox]

03:28 PM on 03/17/2011

Agrees with roland here. Most of the holidays are Pagan, and christians totally darkened them.

[KIVPossum]

02:24 PM on 03/17/2011

Lighten up
Christmas to celebrate family
Valentine's to celebrate love
Thanksgiving to be thankful (with or without religion)
Columbus to celebrate whatever
St Pat's to celebrate love of Ireland and the Irish
New Year's to celebrate a new beginning
4th to celebrate the nation (with all its faults)

[conservicide]

02:18 PM on 03/17/2011

Fire the writer, this story is nothing but a wikipedia summary.

[KDMac]

01:50 PM on 03/17/2011

Charlie McManus: You've got the Father, the Son and the holy ghost. But the three are one - like a shamrock, my old priest used to say. "Three leaves, but one leaf." Now, the father sent down the son, who was love, and then when he went away, he sent down the holy spirit, who came down in the form of a...
Brian Hope: You told me already - a ghost.
Charlie McManus: No, a dove.
Brian Hope: The dove was a ghost?
Charlie McManus: No, the ghost was a dove.
Brian Hope: Let me try and summarize this: God is his son. And his son is God. But his son moonlights as a holy ghost, a holy spirit, and a dove. And they all send each other, even though they're all one and the same thing.
Charlie McManus: You've got it. You really could be a nun!

[Marioam]

01:40 PM on 03/17/2011

St. Patrick is best known for driving the snakes out of Ireland, the snakes being Pagans.
As the above story mentions, the shamrock was taken as a symbol of the Holy Trinity, but was in fact a Pagan symbol of the Triple Goddess, Maiden, Mother , Crone.
Pagans/Wiccans do not celebrate the day, and you will see many wearing the Snake symbol in memory of the Pagans that were tortured and killed during St. Patricks time.
As for the Little Folk, again they are a part of the Pagan beliefs, just as Easter eggs and rabbits are part of the Pagan beliefs and were incorporated into Easter.
Many of the traditions of St. Patricks day here in the States are not praticed in Ireland, such as pinching. Green beer I believe is an American invention, but dont quote me on that, I need to research that one. As a lifelong Wiccan, I have found that many of our American holidays have Pagan DNA. You can check it out for yourself by researching it on Google or your search engine. Not to say tho, that a Pagan or even a Wiccan wont raise a pint to the Little People on this day, lol.

[realpolitik78]

01:47 PM on 03/17/2011

very effective way to convert the masses (keeping parts of the old religion) - don't make the change so drastic. it worked well. cheers.

[dmac]

01:51 PM on 03/17/2011

It was a heck of a marketing campaign.

[gmknobl]

02:28 PM on 03/17/2011

As a Christian I am very aware of the horrors committed in Christ's name that He would never have approved or condoned in any way.

I think all religions need to be taken on their own. Do they promote peace or hatred? Do the people who claim they are part of the religion promote peace or hatred? Although I've never studied Wiccan beliefs I've found those who profess them to be peaceful and kind just as I've found the few Muslims I've known. Of course, I've known many peaceful Christians too as well as Athiests and Agnostics. I've seen and heard a few very loud hateful Christians too.

Let's raise a pint to the peaceful people and true practitioners of real religions in the world!

[KIVPossum]

01:35 PM on 03/17/2011

Think I am all set for St Pat's. My wife confiscated my driver's license, car keys and debit card. Left me enough pocket money for food, beer, and cab fare home. Even pinned my name and address to my shirt - now, that's true love.

[TeeSC]

01:57 PM on 03/17/2011

Yeah but did she put the correct address on it?  :-0

[KIVPossum]

02:01 PM on 03/17/2011

It's not often I completely break out laughing....

Maybe I should check :)