Saint Patrick's Day

Saint Patrick's Day
The Chicago River, dyed green with Fluorescein for the 2005 St. Patrick's Day celebration.
Observed by	Irish people Irish citizens Roman Catholics Anglicans Eastern Orthodox (St. Patrick lived prior to the Great Schism) Many others take part in some practices
Type	National, Ethnic, Christian
Significance	Roman Catholic and Church of Ireland feast day which celebrates Saint Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland
Celebrations	Parades Wearing of green and colouring various objects green Imbibing alcohol
Date	March 17

St. Patrick's Day 2004 in Cork, Ireland.

Saint Patrick's Day (Template:Lang-ga or Lá Fhéile Pádraig), colloquially Paddy's Day or St. Patty's Day, is the feast day which annually celebrates Saint Patrick (385-461), the patron saint of Ireland, on March 17, the day on which Saint Patrick died.

The day is the national holiday of the Irish people. It is a bank holiday in Northern Ireland, and a public holiday in the Republic of Ireland, Montserrat, and the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. In Great Britain, the United States, Australia and the rest of Canada, it is widely celebrated but is not an official holiday.

It became a feast day in the Roman Catholic Church due to the influence of the Waterford-born Franciscan scholar Luke Wadding, as a member of the commission for the reform of the Breviary in the early part of the 17th century.

History

Saint Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland, was born, probably in Roman Britain, about AD 385, and was originally called Maewyn.

At the age of 16, he was sold into slavery by a group of Irish marauders that raided his village. Having been a pagan before, he became closer to Christianity during his captivity.

He escaped from slavery after six years and went to Gaul where he studied in the monastery under St. Germain, bishop of Auxerre for a period of twelve years. During his training he became aware that his calling was to convert the pagans to Christianity.

He wished to return to Ireland and to convert the native pagans to Christianity, but his superiors instead appointed St. Palladius. However, two years later Palladius transferred to Scotland. Patrick, having adopted that Christian name earlier, was then appointed as second bishop to Ireland.

Patrick was quite successful at winning converts which upset the Celtic Druids. Patrick was arrested several times, but escaped each time. He traveled throughout Ireland, establishing monasteries across the country. He also set up schools and churches which would aid him in his conversion of the Irish country to Christianity.

His mission in Ireland lasted for thirty years. After that time, Patrick retired to County Down. He died on March 17 in AD 461. That day has been commemorated as St. Patrick's Day ever since.

Much Irish folklore surrounds St. Patrick's Day. Some of this lore includes the belief that Patrick raised people from the dead.He also is said to have given a sermon from a hilltop that drove all the snakes from Ireland, although paleontologists have pointed out that no snakes were ever native to Ireland. (In response, some scholars say the snake story was a metaphor for the conversion of the pagans.) Though originally a Catholic holy day, St. Patrick's Day has evolved into more of a secular holiday.

One traditional icon of the day is the shamrock. This stems from a more bona fide Irish tale that tells how Patrick used the three-leafed shamrock to explain the Trinity. He used it in his sermons to represent how the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit could all exist as separate elements of the same entity. His followers adopted the custom of wearing a shamrock on his feast day.

The St. Patrick's Day custom came to America in 1737, the first year St. Patrick's Day was publicly celebrated, in Boston, Massachusetts.

Today, people celebrate the day with parades, wearing green, and drinking beer.

Celebration overview

Saint Patrick's Day is celebrated worldwide by Irish people and increasingly by many of non-Irish descent (usually in the US and Ireland), hence the phrase, "Everyone wants to be Irish on St. Patrick's Day." Celebrations are generally themed around all things green and Irish; both Christians and non-Christians celebrate the secular version of the holiday by wearing green, eating Irish food, imbibing Irish drink, and attending parades.

The St. Patrick's Day parade in Dublin, Ireland is part of a five-day festival; over 500,000 people attended the 2006 parade. The largest St. Patrick's Day parade is held in New York City and it is watched by 2 million spectators. The St. Patrick's Day parade was first held in Boston in 1737, organized by the Charitable Irish Society. New York's celebration began on 17 March, 1766 when Irish soldiers marched through the city. Ireland's cities all hold their own parades and festivals. These cities include Dublin, Cork, Belfast, Derry, Galway, Kilkenny, Limerick, and Waterford. Parades also take place in other Irish towns and villages.

Other large parades include those in Savannah, Georgia (the second largest in the United States and largest per capita), Dallas, Cleveland, Manchester, Birmingham, London, Coatbridge, Montreal (the longest continually running St. Patrick's Day parade, celebrating its 183rd consecutive parade in 2007), Boston, Houston, Chicago, Cincinnati,[2]Kansas City, Philadelphia, Indianapolis, Pittsburgh, Denver, St. Paul, Sacramento, Scranton, Detroit, Toronto, Vancouver, Syracuse, New York (the largest parade in the United States), Pearl River (The second largest in New York State), and throughout most of the world. The parade held in Sydney, Australia is recorded as being the largest in the Southern Hemisphere.

As well as being a celebration of Irish culture, Saint Patrick's Day is a Christian festival celebrated in the Catholic Church, the Church of Ireland, and some other denominations. The day always falls in the season of Lent. In church calendars (though rarely in secular ones) Saint Patrick's Day is moved to the following Monday when it falls on a Sunday. It is traditional for those observing a lenten fast to break it for the duration of Saint Patrick's Day whenever March 17 falls on a Friday.

In many parts of North America, Britain, and Australia expatriate Irish, those of Irish descent, and ever-growing crowds of people with no Irish connections but who may proclaim themselves "Irish for a day" also celebrate St. Patrick's Day, usually by drinking larger amounts of alcoholic beverages (lager dyed green, Irish beer and stout, such as Murphys, Smithwicks, Harp or Guinness, or Irish whiskey, Irish cider, Irish coffee, or Baileys Irish Cream) than they probably would normally, and by wearing at least one article of green-coloured clothing.

2007 will mark the first annual St. Patrick's Day parade and festival in the Scottish city of Glasgow. Despite Glasgow having a large Irish community a parade was never thought feasible due to potential sectarian issues, however hopes are that this will no longer be the case and the event will be celebrated without any trouble.

Recent History

In the recent past, Saint Patrick's Day was celebrated only as a religious holiday. It became a public holiday in 1903, by the Bank Holiday (Ireland) Act 1903, an Act of the United Kingdom Parliament introduced by the Irish MP James O'Mara. O'Mara later introduced the law which required that pubs be closed on March 17, a provision which was repealed only in the 1970s. The first St. Patrick's Day parade held in the Irish Free State was held in Dublin in 1931 and was reviewed by the then Minister of Defence Desmond Fitzgerald. Although secular celebrations now exist, the holiday is still a religious observance in some areas.

It was only in the mid-1990s that the Irish government began a campaign to use Saint Patrick's Day to showcase Ireland and its culture. The government set up a group called St. Patrick's Festival, with the aim to:

—Offer a national festival that ranks amongst all of the greatest celebrations in the world and promote excitement throughout Ireland via innovation, creativity, grassroots involvement, and marketing activity.

—Provide the opportunity and motivation for people of Irish descent, (and those who sometimes wish they were Irish) to attend and join in the imaginative and expressive celebrations.

—Project, internationally, an accurate image of Ireland as a creative, professional and sophisticated country with wide appeal, as we approach the new millennium.

The first Saint Patrick's Festival was held on March 17, 1996. In 1997, it became a three-day event, and by 2000 was a four-day event. By 2006, the festival was five days long.

The topic of the 2004 St. Patrick's Symposium was "Talking Irish," during which the nature of Irish identity, economic success, and the future were discussed. Since 1996, there has been a greater emphasis on celebrating and projecting a fluid and inclusive notion of "Irishness" rather than an identity based around traditional religious or ethnic allegiance. The week around Saint Patrick's Day usually involves Irish speakers using more Irish during seachtain na Gaeilge ("Irish Week").

Shamrock ("three-leaf clover")

Many Irish people still wear a bunch of shamrocks on their lapels or caps on this day or green, white, and orange badges (after the colours of the Irish flag). Girls and boys wear green in their hair. Artists draw shamrock designs on people's cheeks as a cultural sign, including American tourists.

Although Saint Patrick's Day has the colour green as its theme, one little known fact is that blue was once the colour associated with this day.

The biggest celebrations on the island of Ireland outside Dublin are in Downpatrick, Northern Ireland, where Saint Patrick was buried following his death on March 17, 493. In 2004, according to Down District Council, the week-long St. Patrick's Festival had over 2000 participants and 82 floats, bands, and performers, and was watched by over 30,000 people.

The day is celebrated by the Church of Ireland as a Christian festival. Saint Patrick's Day as a celebration of Irish culture was rarely acknowledged by Northern Irish loyalists, who consider it a festival of the Irish Republicans. The Belfast City Council recently agreed to give public funds to its parade for the first time; previously the parade was funded privately. The Belfast parade is based on equality and only the flag of St. Patrick is supposed to be used as a symbol of the day to prevent it being seen as a time which is exclusively for Republicans and Nationalists. This allowed both Unionists and Nationalists to celebrate the day together.

Since the 1990s, Irish Taoisigh have sometimes attended special functions either on Saint Patrick's Day or a day or two earlier, in the White House, where they present shamrock to the President of the United States. A similar presentation is made to the Speaker of the House. Originally only representatives of the Republic of Ireland attended, but since the mid-1990s all major Political parties in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland are invited, with the attendance including the representatives of the Irish government, the Ulster Unionist Party, the Social Democratic and Labour Party, Sinn Féin and others. No Northern Irish parties were invited for these functions in 2005. In recent years, it is common for the entire Irish government to be abroad representing the country in various parts of the world. In 2003, the President of Ireland celebrated the holiday in Sydney, the Taoiseach was in Washington, while other Irish government members attended ceremonies in New York City, Boston, San Francisco, San Jose, Savannah, Chicago, Detroit, Philadelphia, San Diego, New Zealand, Hong Kong, South Africa, Korea, Japan, and Brazil.

Saint Patrick's Day parades in Ireland date from the late 19th century, originating in the growing sense of Irish nationalism. (The first parade did not begin in Ireland but in the United States – see below.)

Christian leaders in Ireland have expressed concern about the secularisation of St Patrick's Day. Writing in the Word magazine (March 2007), Fr. Vincent Twomey stated that, "it is time to reclaim St Patrick's Day as a church festival". He questioned the need for "mindless alcohol-fuelled revelry" and concluded that, "it is time to bring the piety and the fun together". The widespread use of alcoholic beverages on St. Patrick's Day may be rooted in the fact that the Roman festival of the Bacchanalia, a celebration of the deity Bacchus (to whom wine was sacred), was on March 17.

Outside Ireland

In Canada

The longest-running Saint Patrick's Day parade in Canada occurs each year in Montreal, Québec. The parades have been held in continuity since 1824; however, St. Patrick's Day itself has been celebrated in Montreal as far back as 1759 by the Irish soldiers of the Montreal Garrison, following the British conquest of New France.

In Canada, Saint Patrick's Day is an official holiday only in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador. Some groups, notably Guinness, have lobbied to make Saint Patrick's Day a federal (national) holiday.

In Manitoba, the Irish Association of Manitoba runs an annual three day festival of music and culture based around St Patrick's Day.

In Great Britain

2006 St Patrick's Day celebrations in Trafalgar Sq, London

In Great Britain, the late Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon (the Queen Mother) used to present bowls of shamrock flown over from Ireland to members of the Irish Guards, a regiment in the British Army consisting primarily of Irishmen from both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. In 2002, London mayor Ken Livingstone organized an annual Saint Patrick's Day parade which takes place on weekends around the 17th, usually in Trafalgar Square.

Another tradition is the consumption of large amounts of Guinness in the hope of getting a "Guinness day Hat," a hat that pubs give away after a certain amount of the beverage has been consumed. The horse racing at the Cheltenham Festival attracts large numbers of Irish people, both residents of Britain and many who travel from Ireland, and usually coincides with Saint Patrick's Day. [3]

The largest Saint Patrick's Day parade in the UK is held in Birmingham over a two mile route through the city centre. The organisers describe it as the third biggest parade in the world after Dublin and New York. [4] Other Saint Patrick's Day parades take place around the country including in London where the largest minority community is Irish. The Lanarkshire town of Coatbridge where the majority of the town's population are of Irish descent also has a day of celebration and parades in the town centre.

Manchester hosts a two week Irish festival in the weeks prior to St Patricks Day, not suprising giving that the city claims the largest Irish population in Great Britain outside of London. The festival includes an Irish Market based at the city's townhall which flys the Irish tricolour opposite the union-jack, a large parade (claiming to be the biggest outside of Dublin and New York based on entrant and float numbers) as well as a large number of cultural and learning events throughout the two week period. The festival boasts itself as the largest in the UK. [5]

In Germany

Munich is the only German city holding a St. Patrick's Day parade owing to the considerably large Irish community. The parade is organized by the German-Irish Society of Bavaria and has been held every year since 1996. Meanwhile it has evolved into the largest in continental Europe and features not only Irish/Scots/English, but also German clubs and societies. Following the 2 km-parade, which usually takes place the Sunday preceding March 17th, is an open air party with live music and dance performances.

In Denmark

The St.Patricks Day 3 Legged Charity Race started in Copenhagen in 2001. The race is organized by the Irish expat community and is sponsored by the Carlsberg brewery and the Irish pub owners of Copenhagen. All proceeds from the 2007 event are donated to a Danish charity for children with cancer.

In Moscow

On 15th March 1992, thousands of Muscovites lined the Novy Arbat to witness the first St. Patrick's Day Parade in the Russian capital's history. Yuri Luzhkov — the then and current — Mayor of Moscow - and Aer Rianta Chief Executive Derek Keogh were on the reviewing stand as a police escort led the way for — rather bizarrely — Russian marching bands, Cossack horsemen, and fifteen floats representing many Russian companies. The parade, which was the brainchild of Derek Keogh, was a big success, and ensured a repeat performance the following year.

Each year the floats have become more numerous and sophisticated and the range of international and Russian participants and sponsors more wide-ranging such as Pepsi and Guinness. The local Irish bars of Moscow contribute their own floats and Muscovites reveal their own homegrown Irish Wolfhounds, which are nearly as big as the floats themselves.

The Moscow parade continued to be an annual event until 1998. After a three year lapse The St Patrick's Society of Russia managed to re-establish the St Patrick's Day parade with the co-operation of the Moscow City Government, The Moscow police, various government bodies, The Irish Embassy and the Irish Community in Moscow.

In the United States of America

Irish colonists brought Saint Patrick's Day to what is now the United States of America. The first civic and public celebration of Saint Patrick's Day in the 13 colonies took place in Boston, Massachusetts in 1737. The first celebration of Saint Patrick's Day in New York City was held at the Crown and Thistle Tavern in 1756. In 1780, General George Washington, who commanded soldiers of Irish descent in the Continental Army, allowed his troops a holiday on March 17. This event became known as The St. Patrick's Day Encampment of 1780. Today, Saint Patrick's Day is widely celebrated in America by Irish and non-Irish alike.

Americans celebrate the holiday by wearing green. Many people, regardless of ethnic background, wear green-coloured clothing and items. Traditionally, those who are caught not wearing green are pinched.

Many parades are held to celebrate the holiday. Details vary. Savannah, Georgia is a prime location for revelers. In New Orleans, Louisiana, the parades include the influence of New Orleans Mardi Gras, with float riders throwing spectators strings of beads, cabbages, and potatoes. Perhaps the smallest notable parade World's Shortest St. Patrick's Day Parade, is said to take place in Hot Springs, Arkansas in the United States annually held on historic Bridge Street which became famous in the 1940s when Ripley’s Believe It or Not designated it “The Shortest Street in the World.” Boulder, Colorado claims to have the shortest parade, which is also less than a single city block. The city of Maryville, MO may have the shortest parade. Starting off as a joke for the downtown watering hole, The Palms, it is an ever diminishing tradition of having the world's shortest Saint Patrick's Day Parade. Originally going a block on Buchanan from Fourth Street to Fifth Street, the parade has gotten shorter and shorter each year to maintain the record. It was 86 feet in 2006.

The New York parade has become the largest Saint Patrick's Day parade in the world, outside Ireland. In 2006 more than 150,000 marchers participated in it, including bands, firefighters, military and police groups, county associations, emigrant societies, and social and cultural clubs and was watched by close to 2 million spectators lining the streets. The parade marches up 5th Avenue in Manhattan and is always led by the U.S. 69th Infantry Regiment. New York politicians - or those running for office - are always found prominently marching in the parade. Former New York City Mayor Ed Koch once proclaimed himself "Ed O'Koch" for the day, and he continues to don an Irish sweater and march every year, even though he is no longer in office.

The New York parade has been dogged with controversy in recent years as its organizers have banned Irish gays and lesbians from marching as a group. The parade is organized by an Irish-Catholic group, and the Catholic Church is opposed to homosexual practices. American Gay rights groups have fought in court to obtain the right to march alongside other organizations. The gay groups and their sympathizers protested loudly in numerous ways. Many years protesters would lie down in the middle of the street at the start of the parade route and were arrested when they refused to move. In the late 1980s such arrests averaged several hundred per year, but had dwindled to a dozen or less annually by the early 2000s. A tradition has begun in Queens of organizing a parade the week before the official Saint Patrick's Day parade. The Queens parade is open to all organizations wishing to march.

The parade is organized and run by the Ancient Order of Hibernians. For many years, the St. Patrick's Day Parade was the primary public function of the Ancient Order of Hibernians. On occasion the order has appointed controversial Irish republican figures (some of whom were barred from the U.S.) to be its Grand Marshal.

While it is a popular misconception that the St. Patrick's Day Parade bans 'lesbians and gays', the fact is that all politically motivated groups, including pro-life groups, are banned from the Parade in an effort to keep politics out of a festive community celebration. Gays and lesbians are welcome to be in the Parade as members of any of the groups allowed.

The New York parade is moved to the previous Saturday (March 16) in years where March 17 is a Sunday. The event is also moved on the rare occasions when, due to Easter falling on a very early date, March 17 would land in Holy Week. This last occurred in 1913. That year the parade was held on Saturday, March 15, because Easter was on March 23 (making March 17 the Monday of Holy Week). This same scenario is scheduled to arise again in 2008, when Easter will also fall on March 23. In many other American cities (such as San Francisco), the parade is always held on the Sunday before March 17, regardless of the liturgical calendar.

Some cities paint the traffic stripe of their parade routes green. Chicago even dyes its river green. Savannah dyes its downtown city fountains green. Indianapolis dyes its Central Canal green.

The longest-running Saint Patrick's Day celebrations in the U.S. are:

• Boston, Massachusetts, since 1737
• New York City, since 1756
• Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, since 1771
• Morristown, New Jersey, since 1780
• Savannah, Georgia, since 1813
• Carbondale, Pennsylvania, since 1833
• Chicago, Illinois, since 1843
• New Haven, Connecticut, since 1845
• San Francisco, California, since 1852
• Scranton, Pennsylvania, since 1862
• Cleveland, Ohio, since 1867
• Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, since 1869
• Kansas City, Missouri, since 1873
• Butte, Montana, since 1882

Although the baseball season is still in the spring training phase when St. Patrick's Day rolls around, some teams such as the St. Louis Cardinals, New York Yankees, New York Mets, Chicago White Sox, and the Boston Red Sox, wear green uniforms for the occasion.

Montserrat

The tiny island of Montserrat, known as "Emerald Island of the Caribbean" due to its foundation by Irish refugees from Saint Kitts and Nevis, is the only place in the world apart from the Republic of Ireland and the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador in which St Patrick's Day is a public holiday.

Artistic celebration of St. Patrick's day

Some artistically inclined people disconnect the celebration from the Irish altogether and simply view the holiday as a celebration of the color green. These people, besides wearing green on that day, may also stage dinner parties featuring all green foods. An example of such a menu would be chicken (not naturally green) with rice and lima beans with sliced green maraschino cherries in coconut sauce colored with green food coloring, a green salad including greens, avocados and sliced green apples, split pea soup, green tinted bread spiced with sage, Lime Jell-O, iced limeade and/or a green-beer, and lime pudding, keylime pie, or lime sherbet for dessert.

See also

• Saint Patrick
• Saint Patrick's Battalion (Batallón de San Patricio)
• Irish calendar
• Public holidays in the Republic of Ireland
• UK national holidays
• Plastic Paddy
• Shamrock
• Leprechaun
• Evacuation Day (Massachusetts)
• Irish Marching Society
• It's A Great Day for the Irish
• List of Irish-Americans
• Saint Patrick's Day Four

External links

• Official St. Patrick's Festival in Dublin, Ireland
• Saint Patrick History
• St. Patrick's Day worldwide - events, news, history.
• Saint Patrick's Parade information
• An article detailing the role St. Patrick's Day had in phasing out ancient religions in Europe