St. Patrick's Day is the single most green day of the year. Whatch ya got on that environmentalists, huh?! The Irish are the greenest of green! What? You mean it's not the same type of green?? Well, kiss my blarney stone! One thing is for sure, there is no shortage of the color green on St. Patrick's Day. Green clothes, green beer, green rivers, green shamrocks, leprechauns in green...No doubt this bright hue, inducing visions of Ireland and spring time, is ubiquitous on this day known for partying, but St. Patrick's Day is actually about more than just a color.

St. Patrick, not natively Irish, was born near the end of the fourth century in the British Isles. He is one of the most famous figures in Christianity, even though Patrick was not a practicing Christian in his childhood years and considered himself to be a pagan until the age of 16 years old. In a Roman-ruled Britain, Christianity had been abandoned for pagan beliefs. At the age of 16, Patrick was taken prisoner by Irish marauders who invaded his town and was sold in to slavery in Ireland. There he spent six years in captivity as a sheep herder and returned to his once discarded religion, becoming a devout Christian.

According to writings by Patrick, after six years in slavery, a voice he believed to be that of God came to him in a dream telling him to escape and leave Ireland via a get-away ship. He was able to do just that, escape his captors and board a ship leaving Ireland, and ended up back in Britain. Patrick later went to France where he studied in a monastery in Gaul under St. Germain, bishop of Auxerre. It is there that Patrick is said to have received more visions telling him to return to Ireland where his calling was to convert pagans to Christianity. After 12 years of religious training, Patrick did return to Ireland, but this time as a bishop. He was widely successful in converting the Irish to Christianity and spent 30 years on this mission, establishing monasteries and churches throughout the country, before retiring to Country Down (Northern Ireland). This is where Patrick remained until his death on March 17th, A.D. 461. The Irish have, for thousands of years since, celebrated March 17th as a religious feast day to honor St. Patrick.

There is much legend surrounding St. Patrick, most of it probably the product of clever Irish story telling rather than actual truth. One such tale says St. Patrick stood atop a hillside and banished all snakes from Ireland, thereby sending them all into the ocean where they drowned. In actually, given it's an island, snakes were never native to Ireland. Another legend recalls St. Patrick's use of the shamrock to explain the Holy Trinity. He explained in sermons that, just as the three leaves of the shamrock combine to create one plant, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, all are separate but combine to create one entity. This made the concept of the Holy Trinity easier to understand for those new to Christianity. In addition to the legends surrounding St. Patrick, the Irish love the shamrock for its relation to the number three (three leaves). Three is a magic number to the Irish and was important to Celtic symbolism. For these reasons, the shamrock is a revered symbol to the Irish. It is customary to wear the shamrock on St. Patrick's Day.
Article Continues ...