Missed holidays...

I have been remiss in making sure I have caught the holidays as they come, and two rather large occasions have passed by without so much as a peep from me on them. Dear readers, for that I apologize.

Now, with the formalities over, let's talk about them! I'm sure you've guessed I'm talking about St. Patrick's Day which was just yesterday, and Palm Sunday, which was only two days ago. Believe it or not, I actually managed to choose outfits for both my son and myself in green for St. Patrick's Day without even realizing it was the holiday. Maybe there was some subconscious trigger in my memory, I knew the holiday was coming up soon, and therefore it kept me and my son from being the target of those holiday observers who enjoy picking out those without green on and pinching them for their mistake. Whatever the reason, once we got out in public, I was glad for the happy coincidence.

St. Patrick's Day is something of a holiday that doesn't mean too much to me since I'm neither Catholic or Irish, and other than the holiday being all about green, I had to look into the history to gather more information. A national holiday in Ireland, the day celebrates St. Patrick, a patron saint of Ireland. Okay, so far so basic. However, this year the actual holiday was observed (at least in Ireland) on March 14th due to the holiday falling during Holy Week. This has happened before in 1940 and won't happen again until 2160.

The tradition of a parade for St. Patrick's Day goes back to 1761 where it was first held in Boston (oddly enough, not Ireland) by the Charitable Irish Society. The parade in Dublin, Ireland is just part of a five day festival to celebrate the holiday; supposedly the largest parade held to date was in Chicago where over 2.5 million people watched; and Montreal, Canada has the longest continuous running parade in North America since 1824; and a parade in Sydney, Australia is said to have the largest parade in the Southern Hemisphere.

As a Catholic-celebrated holiday, when the holiday falls in the season of Lent (which is apparently almost always), some bishops will allow a "release" from the observance of no meat on Fridays is the holiday falls on a Friday. Or, if the holiday falls on a Sunday, some churches move the holiday to the following Monday. Odd, I had no idea this holiday got jostled around so much!

One of the funny things I found out about the whole St. Patrick's Day phenomenon is that while we associate the color green with the holiday, St. Patrick himself was originally associated with the color blue - not green. Green is the color most commonly associated with Ireland though, so I guess it makes sense that over time it evolved. Also, besides being a symbol of Irish nationalism or loyalty to the Roman Catholic Church, the symbol of the shamrock was used by St. Patrick to explain the Holy Trinity. I wonder how many people realize the religious symbolism when they wear the clover? I had never thought about it myself!

Also, oddly enough, although we automatically think "Ireland" when we think of St. Patrick's Day, it was only pretty recently that Ireland began to really embrace the holiday as a "showcase" of their land and culture. Wikipedia says:

It was only in the mid-1990s that the Irish government began a campaign to use Saint Patrick's Day to showcase Ireland and its culture. The government set up a group called St. Patrick's Festival, with the aim to: —Offer a national festival that ranks amongst all of the greatest celebrations in the world and promote excitement throughout Ireland via innovation, creativity, grassroots involvement, and marketing activity. —Provide the opportunity and motivation for people of Irish descent, (and those who sometimes wish they were Irish) to attend and join in the imaginative and expressive celebrations. —Project, internationally, an accurate image of Ireland as a creative, professional and sophisticated country with wide appeal, as we approach the new millennium. The first Saint Patrick's Festival was held on 17 March 1996. In 1997, it became a three-day event, and by 2000 it was a four-day event. By 2006, the festival was five days long.

Now, to probably one of the most popular parts of the holiday - the alcohol! Although the holiday began as a Christian holiday, it quickly became a time to celebrate at the pub. This may be due to the fact that the same day, March 17th, is also a celebration of the Roman deity Bacchus (aka Dionysus) who was the god of wine and held wine as sacred. So, if wine is sacred, and wine is related to alcohol of different varieties, well, you can connect the dots! So these days, what says St. Patrick's Day celebration more than green beer?

Anyway, however you choose to celebrate, I hope you had a good St. Patrick's Day, didn't get pinched too much, and didn't suffer from a miserable hangover the next day! And, until next year's holiday, I leave you with this Old Irish Blessing:

May love and laughter light your days, and warm your heart and home. May good and faithful friends be yours, wherever you may roam. May peace and plenty bless your world with joy that long endures. May all life's passing seasons bring the best to you and yours!

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