What does St. Patrick's Day really represent?

Answer 1

March 17th is the feast day for St. Patrick, a bishop who lived in Ireland in the 300-400's.

He used a shamrock to teach the Christian concept of the Trinity.

Answer 2

St. Patrick was a Breton (modern Britain, probably near Wales), who was taken captive by marauders and sold into slavery and sent to Ireland. He was there for 14 years and finally escaped.

Years later, Patrick converted to Christianity and became a missionary, and went back to Ireland to convert the Irish because he had grown fond of them during his captivity.

He went around Ireland converting people, even kings (the story of the shamrock symbolizing the Holy Trinity is a popular story about him converting one of the Irish kings). It's interesting to point out that Ireland was the only contry that converted to Roman Catholicsm without the use of the sword.

During this time, there were many missionaries converting people in Ireland, but St. Patrick became the one that everyone knows because he's was able to write (a rare skill during those times), and wrote extensively about his life in journals.

Within about 50-100 years, almost all of Ireland converted from the Celtic religion to Christianity, though Christianity in Ireland still retained some pagan customs (even to this day.. Halloween for example, is the Celtic holiday Samhain).

Since Catholicism played such a huge influence on Irish Culture (even for nonCatholics), that's why it became a national holiday (and St. Patrick Ireland's patron saint). WHen the English trade policies created the Irish Holocaust (Famine) in the 1840s-50s, Irish left to live all over the world, and brought their holiday with them although it switched from being just a religious holiday where people go to church, to more of a nationalistic celebration where everything Irish is celebrated.

That's what St. Paddy represents.

Answer 3

http://www.history.com/minisites/stpatricksday/?page=history

Green on St. Patrick’s day

The Color Green and Saint Patrick's Day
Actually there's no connection between green and St. Patrick. It's just that Irish connecting green colour to fairies, angels, and saints, and any other Holy things.
Ireland is known as "The Emerald Isle," and emerald = green, so green is the color of Ireland and thus of St. Patrick's Day.
Now, if we were talking the Anglican Church, rather than the Irish Catholic, orange would be the color of choice. But since St. Patrick is Catholic (... not really, but you know what I mean...) green it is.
A major misconception is the association of St. Patrick with the colour green. The confusion arises from the phrase "the wearing of the green," which means to wear a shamrock. St. Patrick used the three-leaved plant to explain the Trinity of the Christian religion. Actually blue is the colour associated with St. Patrick. "St. Patrick's blue" can be seen on ancient Irish flags.
Green is associated with Saint Patrick's Day because it is the color of spring, Ireland, and the shamrock. Leprechauns are also associated with this holiday, although I'm not sure why. Leprechauns of legend are actually mean little creatures, with the exception of the Lucky Charms guy. They were probably added later on because capitalists needed something cute to put on greeting cards.


Origins of St. Patrick's Day
St. Patrick's day was first celebrated in this country in Boston in 1737. It's not surprising that it reached our shores as there are more Americans of Irish origin than there are Irish in Ireland.
The man himself, St. Patrick, was born in Wales in 385 AD. His given name was Maewyn. He had an eventful life and was good at converting pagans to Christianity. He was thrown into prison several times and escaped each time from the Celtic druids to continue establishing churches and monasteries all over Ireland, a mission that took him over 30 years.
St. Patrick died on March 17th, 461 AD and that day has been celebrated as St. Patrick's Day ever since.
When we think of this holiday, we think of green and yet the color of St. Patrick is actually blue. Green came into the picture and started to be associated with this celebration in the 19th century. The color green in Irish legends was the color worn by fairies and immortals and the color worn by people to encourage crops to grow. Even today, when we think of green, we think of springtime, new life and new growth.

Answer 4

It's celebrated in honour of St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland.

Answer 5

It's almost like the Easter bunny.... with beer.

The question I want to know is, " Why did 'Gays' choose St. Patrick's day to come out of the closet and march in a parade?" Must be the green beer.

Answer 6

Tribute to Arthur Guinness!