I find that most cultural traditions have such interesting facts as to how they originated. Today being St. Patricks Day I did a little research to see what some of the facts were behind the holiday.
Here are a few interesting facts that I found:
St. Patrick was born in Britain to a wealthy family
He was kidnapped at age 16 and taken to Ireland to be a slave
St. Patrick was an atheist in his earlier years, but had a religious transformation later on in life.
After 17 years of slavery he escaped and returned to Britain only to come back to Ireland to do missionary work.
In Ireland St. Patrick’s day is a religious day where it is celebrated with a family meal.
There were no snakes in Ireland for St. Patrick to chase out.
The traditions that we experience here in the United States were begun by the Irish-Americans. From parades to turning the Chicago River green St. Patrick’s Day has become another day for us to have fun and celebrate. The local pubs are filled to the brim making sure they have extra kegs of Guiness on hand for the celebration. How about getting a pinch if you are not wearing green? I wonder where that originated from?
I almost forgot one of the most popular traditions is that of a meal consisting of corn beef and cabbage. I wonder what the statistics are for how many corn beefs are sold for St. Patrick’s Day meals?
Happy St. Patrick’s Day to you all!
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