Happy St Patrick’s Day.
A day of wearing green, playing with Shamrocks, enjoying green colored drinks and sweets, recalling the legends of the Saint chasing away snakes and bringing light into the world. Where did these fascinating myths come from? I love exploring the past to understand their true significances.
Who was St Patrick? As one of Ireland’s Patron saints ,he was in fact not even Irish. He was born in present day England around the year 390 and was enslaved by raiders, who took him to the Emerald Isle., where he lived for about 6 years, escaped then returned back years later after receiving religious instructions as a missionary. He was born Maewyn Succat, from a family that may have been originated from Roman aristocracy but lived in Briton. There is documentation of him signing his name in latin as “ Patricus”
There is a legend of St Patrick standing on the hills in Ireland and with his stick ridding away all the snakes from the country. The narrative is more symbolic suggestive that with the teaching of Christianity through his sermons he converted the pagans represented by the figurative lowly native snakes into enlightened Christians, thereby eliminating pagan ideologies. There were no snakes in Ireland given the very cool climates.
What’s with the green? Lore has it that when he first saw Ireland he noted it to be very green as is quite obvious with its magnificent lush vegetation and landscapes. However symbolically the knights would wear blue to represent st Patrick, but later on rebels in the 18th century started using the color green to support their cause. The green on the Irish flag represents the Catholics of Ireland. As an aside note the orange represents the Protestants, and the white symbolizes the peace between the two. In the original lore the green makes one invisible to the mythical leprechauns who are mischievous and like to pinch people ( but that is another story).
Parades? Well the original celebrations were actually more introverted and on the commemoration of the death of st Patrick on March 17, the Irish would have a day of quiet prayer in their homes. No fanfare. But Irish immigrants to the USA began the tradition to remind them of their roots and so began the fun parades and parties and music and foods of Irish culture.
The Shamrock is an iconic symbol for the Irish. It’s association came from the teachings of St Patrick who used the 3 leaves on one leaf symbol to explain the Holy Trinity, the Father, The Son, the Holy Spirit. this is not to be mistaken with the rare and lucky four leaf clover. It was used by him in this explanation of faith , hope and love but moreover to overshadow the pagan teachings of the 3 petals of the Celtic Earth Goddess Ana or Anu ( the female principle energy ) representing her status as the maiden, the mother and the Crone of Ireland.
It is a fun time to respect each other’s culture and beliefs, it is equally important to know the origins of the mythology, because deep within lie the stories of our connection to our divinity and the real reasons why we do what we do, and history has a way of blanketing the mysteries to support the narratives of the times. I wonder how the legend of st Patrick will be celebrated in a thousand years.
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I love you
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