We're coming up to what I always assumed was a made up holiday, St. Patrick's Day, but, no, the holiday's actual origin is a Roman Catholic church feast day for the patron saint of Ireland (Saint Patrick) who died on March 17, 461. Ironically, he wasn't Irish, but rather he was born in Roman Britain, kidnapped, sold into slavery and transported to what is modern day Ireland. He escaped to Gaul (France), entered a monastery and converted to Christianity. He returned to Ireland as a missionary. Christianity was actually very widespread at that point, but Patrick did confront the remaining Druids and ran them out of Dodge along with their pagan rites. Legend has it Missionary Patrick used the Irish shamrock to explain the Christian Trinity to the peasant population. (I don't know what he did when a mutant four leaf shamrock popped up.)
It really wasn't until the Irish began immigrating out of Ireland did secular celebrations of St. Patrick's Day begin. Eighteenth century Irish who fought in the Revolutionary War held the first St. Paddy day parades. Turning the holiday into a celebration of being Irish was a way for immigrants to stay connected to their roots. Parades and post parade parties were also a way to say, "We're here; deal with it."
A flood of Irish left the homeland because of the potato famine in the 1840's. Irish in great numbers appeared in Newfoundland, the United States, and also New Zealand and Australia as a direct result of the famine. The immigration numbers were so high in the United States that today 34 million people claim Irish ancestry. That's almost one in ten. 190,000 Irish Americans fought in the Civil War (out of 2.75 million soldiers). There were nine Irish signers of the Declaration of Independence.
Integrating Irish culture by the in place American population was an early example of how we embrace elements of an immigrant culture and make them our own. So, everyone, Irish or not, has joined in the idea of having or attending a fun parade, wearing green, pinching those who don't, having a party, sort of believing the four leaf shamrock (clover) is 'lucky' and drinking green beer.
The way I look at it is this: We just finished celebrating the Chinese New Year. It's the year of the Red Monkey, incidentally. If you are lucky, you'll go to a Mardi Gras parade and catch something thrown from a float, and even luckier if you get to eat some real Cajun food. Next week we will be 'wearing the green' for St. Patrick's Day which will set us up for Cinco de Maya. Those parades will be followed not by green beer, but by those tasty margaritas. We then sashay right into the 4th of July with barbecue and hamburgers followed by fireworks. Now, do we know how to do holidays or what? We may not have invented "Eat, Drink and be Merry", but we sure know how to do it.
