History of St. Patrick’s Day

The celebration of the St Patrick holiday is held on 17th March of every year. It is mainly associated and observed in Ireland and also in other parts of the world where there is a predominant Irish population such as in the United States, Australia, Canada, Britain, and Argentina. The holiday is mostly a Catholic ceremony; thus it is Irish of the Catholic faith that commemorate it in honor of St Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland. Despite all these festivals in his honor, do you know that St Patrick was not even Irish?

From Maewyn To Saint

St Patrick is highly viewed by the Irish due to his dedicated services in Ireland of the 5th century though there are different opinions on the exact years. His birth name was Maewyn Succat born of a Roman-British army officer father. A band of pirates abducted him when he was six years of age and later sold to slavery in Ireland. During his stay there it is said he started experiencing changes and also claiming to have seen God in his dream. Legend holds that he was dedicated to escaping in a getaway ship to Britain then later went to France where he was an understudy of St. Germaine, the then bishop of Auxerre. He then went back to Ireland as a missionary. He claimed that he made that decision because he had dreamt that that the Irish people had asked him to go back to Ireland. As a missionary in Ireland, he made Christianity take hold in there by being very successful in winning over new converts even including some from the royal family.

Tradition has it that in his 20 years of traveling throughout Ireland, establishing monasteries and popularizing Christianity he came across opposition and hostility from the Druids. But later on, they abolished their pagan rites, making Christianity the main religion in the country.He then set up and established schools and churches that would assist him in his evangelism mission. The shamrock is Marjory associated with his missionary work where the three petals on the shamrock are said to symbolize the three Trinity in Christianity, which refers to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Most people say that the date of the holiday is well placed at a time where the spring is about to begin.

The Spread Of Saint Patty’s Day

Though it was a Catholic holiday initially, St Patrick day has significantly evolved to the now vibrant holiday we know of today that boost of over 150000 participants. Parades and wearing green have always been a traditional part of St. Patrick’s Day celebrations. The Pennsylvania City’s parade is one of the oldest, largest and most famous of all the other parades. Since 1862, this show has attracted quite a lot of participants ranking to almost 130,000 members. Parades theme are associated with wearing green which has turned to be a tradition in the St. Patrick’s Day celebrations, but the events mostly vary based on the city. Some of the towns well known for holding this event are Boston, New York, Chicago, New Orleans and Ireland. St. Patrick’s Day is a day observed for spiritual renewal and giving prayers for all missionaries worldwide.