If you measured Saint Patrick by the typical American experience, you’d think (much like Cinco De Mayo) St. Parick was a gluttonous boozer. Leave it to America to turn something into gluttonous boozing. It’s Arbor day; let’s drink to the trees!
Cinco de Mayo commemorates the anniversary of Mexico’s 1862 victory over the Second French Empire at the Battle of Puebla. In the US, it’s about drinking and eating. So are the months of November and December. The Fourth of July. Labor Day, Memorial Day, St. Patrick’s Day didn’t have a chance. But what about St. Patrick?
According to the autobiographical Confessio of Patrick, when he was about sixteen, he was captured by Irish pirates from his home in Britain and taken as a slave to Ireland, looking after animals; he lived there for six years before escaping and returning to his family. After becoming a cleric, he returned to northern and western Ireland. In later life, he served as a bishop, but little is known about the places where he worked. By the seventh century, he had already come to be revered as the patron saint of Ireland.
Ironically, at least according to this account, when the “holiday” was celebrated in earlier years, “pubs closed and observers went to church.”
From History.com.
In the centuries following Patrick’s death (believed to have been on March 17, 461), the mythology surrounding his life became ever more ingrained in the Irish culture: Perhaps the most well-known legend of St. Patrick is that he explained the Holy Trinity (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) using the three leaves of a native Irish clover, the shamrock.
These days pagans fill the pubs, and there is little or no mention of a church unless it is ” the church key,” which gets a lot of use on March 17.
Greeting card companies, decoration makers, brewers, and bottlers of ales and spirits are all beneficiaries of the American experience. The corned beef industry also enjoys an uptick in sales alongside the cabbage cart guy: food, beer, fun, and lots of advice about drinking responsibly and designated drivers.
Not at all a bad idea.
If your plans include excess, please bring someone who will remain sober so you can get home alive. You wouldn’t want to shuffle off your mortal coil and meet St. Patrick accidentally.
Or worse, send someone else in your place.
Have fun. Be safe—and Happy St. Patrick’s Day.
