St Patrick's Day

Tuesday March 17th 2009 is St Patrick’s Day. On this day, people celebrate with parades, wearing of the green, and drinking beer. So what is St Patricks day, apart from a good excuse to drink Guinness or Paddys Whisky and look at pictures of Leprechauns and Shamrocks?
The person who was to become St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland, was born in Wales about AD 385 and his name was Maewyn ( pronounced May –Win ) and he was not a saint, until he was 16, he considered himself a pagan. At that age, he was sold into slavery by a group of Irish marauders that raided his village.

He escaped from slavery after six years and went to Gaul where he studied in the monastery under St. Germain, bishop of Auxerre for twelve years. During his training he became aware that his calling was to convert the pagans to Christianity and he returned to Ireland to do this.
For 30 years he travelled throughout the country, 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. 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 he is claimed to have given a sermon from a hilltop that drove all the snakes from Ireland. Of course, no snakes were ever native to Ireland, and some people think this is probably a metaphor for the conversion of the pagans.

One traditional icon of the day is the shamrock. And this stems from a more believable 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.

One reason St. Patrick's Day might have become so popular is that it takes place just a few days before the first day of spring and this was a traditional holiday for the Pagan Irish. St Patrick often incorporated elements of pagan festivals into his lessons about Christianity and it has been suggested that he originated the Celtic cross by melding the Christian Cross with the pagan symbol of the sun.

Of course the holiday is celebrated with lots of beer drinking, Guiness is famous for a reason!. The Irish are very famous for their toasts and so I will leave you with one of them.

Here's to your coffin...May it be built of 100 year old oaks which I will plant tomorrow.

Happy St Patrick’s Day