St Patrick’s Day (17th March)
Saint Patrick’s Day is the national holiday of Ireland. In the UK as a whole, it is not a national holiday, but in Northern Ireland it is a bank holiday, and large scale celebrations take place in some towns.
Saint Patrick: A brief history
As with many other saints, a lot of the story of Saint Patrick is disputed. You can easily find conflicting information from equally respectable sources. With that in mind, what is actually known about St Patrick?
Neither his birthday nor the day of his death are known. It is believed that he died on a March 17th, which is why St Patrick’s Day falls on that date every year. However, there are notable disagreement on the year of his death (and also on the year of his birth). Some sources claim he lived for 120 years, from 373 to 493, which is a rather longer than average life expectancy for his time.
There are two documents written by St Patrick himself, which are considered to be historically genuine. Both are letters. One is autobiographical in nature (and written to defend himself against allegations of some form of corruption), the other is a letter to the soldiers of Coroticus. The BBC have compiled some of the most relevant quotes into bitesized chunks for you to read, here.
Most accounts of St Patrick mention that he was kidnapped from his home in Britain at the age of 16 and sold into slavery. Some accounts call the kidnappers “raiders”, in other accounts, they’re “pirates”. He spent time in Ireland as slave / farm hand, found religion, and eventually escaped back to Britain. After studying for a few years, he returned to Ireland to support the already existing Christian communities there, and convert others to Christianity. Speaking the native language thanks to the time he spent in Ireland in his youth, and being familiar with local beliefs, he did not appear condescending when he started his efforts to convert people. He amalgamated some of the local beliefs with Christianity, and the Celtic Cross, which features a symbolic sun integrated into the Christian Crucifix, was allegedly one of his creations. Integrating Celtic imagery and sun-worship allowed Christianity to appear much less foreign to the Irish of the time.
He was extremely successful at growing the Christian community, and, according to some sources, especially successful at converting young noblewomen of wealth and standing. After being converted, they often founded nunneries. He did not, however, convert all of Ireland to Christianity. Historians are unsure whether St Patrick was a single person (some believe the achievements of two separate and distinct individuals were amalgamated into one to boost the saint’s profile), but they generally claim that he was most active in Ulster / Northern Ireland. The rest of the island converted to Christianity over time, long after his death.
As you might expect, there are many tall tales about St Patrick and his achievements. After all, he did have an adventurous life. However, stories describing how he single-handedly banned all snakes from Ireland, turned a cave into an entrance to purgatory, and turned the three-leafed clover (shamrock) into a national symbol by using it to explain the nature of the holy trinity are generally considered fictitious. It’s proven that Ireland hasn’t been native home to snakes at any point since the last Ice Age, and the first mention of the shamrock story occurred nearly a thousand years after St Patrick’s death. As for the gate to purgatory – it still is a popular destination for pilgrimages (as are many of the locations associated with St Patrick). There is an interactive book of facts on the BBC website, which lets you explore the locations and sites associated with St Patrick.
St Patrick’s Day celebrations
While St Patrick has been revered by the Irish for centuries, modern day St Patrick’s celebrations are actually a fairly recent development. Originally, St Patrick’s Day would be a feast day for all Catholics – very significant, as it always falls into the time of Lent, and thus allows for a day of food, drink and merry-making in a time otherwise spent fasting.
However, as the observance of Lent has diminished, so did the contrast between St Patrick’s Day and other saints’ feast days. It is largely thanks to Irish emigrant communities abroad that the day has been turned into an international event. American people of Irish descent started organising parades, and even dyeing rivers green – most famously the Chicago River since 1962, using around 40 pounds of green vegetable dye – to celebrate their culture. St Patrick’s Day started to be celebrated by Irish descendants all over the world, and wearing something green, while drinking Irish drinks and eating traditional Irish foods became part of the holiday.
As these celebrations grew ever more popular abroad, Ireland and Northern Ireland decided to capitalise on them. In the mid-1990s, Ireland’s government made a conscious decision to organise an annual festival, the St Patrick’s Festival, with a stated intention to make it on a par with any of the world’s most famous.
In Northern Ireland, St Patrick’s Day is celebrated most enthusiastically in the cities that were St Patrick’s homes: Downpatrick (where he allegedly lies buried) and Armagh.
Around the world, there’s parades in numerous cities (including in London, where a St Patrick Festival is taking place this year). Expect decorations and enthusiastic people pretending to be “Irish for a day” in Wales, too. Irish pubs are bound to be popular, and you may see lots of people wearing green clothes, souvenir hats, and shamrocks.
