writing: Rebekah Richter
design: Lincoln Hake
It is March 17, the one day that rolls around each year where people are told to wear green and maybe even to make a leprechaun trap. However, after waking up early that morning, many see that the trap was unsuccessful at catching the tiny little leprechaun. He got away again.
Each year, St. Patrick’s Day is widely celebrated mainly throughout the United States, Canada, Ireland, Austria, and many other countries. This day is a time to commemorate Saint Patrick’s life and the arrival of Christianity to Ireland.
“St. Patrick was the patron saint of Ireland. He was kidnapped from Britain at the age of 16 and sold into slavery in Ireland and became a shepherd, a lonely job tending sheep. Although he had not been particularly religious, Patrick talked and prayed to God since he saw no one else,” librarian at North View Elementary School with Irish heritage Diana Knoll said.
Saint Patrick’s life was rocky and filled with many ups and downs. He is the man that is celebrated every March 17. Christians throughout America celebrate his life and the evangelism he showed.
“After six years of servitude, he believed God called him to go home so he left the mountain and walked 200 miles to the sea and talked a ship’s captain into taking him to Britain. But the ship blew off course, and they made land and almost starved to death until Patrick prayed, and wild boars appeared. Finally making it home, he became a priest and then a bishop,” Knoll said.
St. Patrick was faced with many challenges throughout his life, but he still stayed faithful. He became a beacon of hope to different people around the world, and eventually in 1631 he got a day where people all around the world celebrated him.
“He felt God called him to return to Ireland and convert the pagan clans to Christianity, so he did. He traveled throughout Ireland baptizing kings and peasants alike, setting up churches and monasteries, and even before his death was known as the patron saint of Ireland. He died on March 17, 461,” Knoll said.
He was a leader in the world and his life is what most people celebrate on March 17. They do this by having parades, wearing green, setting leprechaun traps, and going to pubs or bars.
“On St. Patrick’s Day my dance studio does shows at places like retirement homes, the Ronald McDonald house, and big restaurants. Pub crawls are when a group of dancers go around to restaurants, bars and pubs and dance. We then pass a St. Patrick’s Day hat around, and people give us cash that goes to help dancers with travel costs,” Irish dancer Hannah Rauzi said.
St. Patrick’s Day has become very publicized in the United States and other countries, from dancing in pubs to entertain and help raise money for dancers to dying the river green in Chicago, having parades, and drinking green beer.
“On St. Patrick’s Day, my mom would sing an Irish tune as we ate cabbage and potatoes. My grandmother told us if you didn’t wear green on St. Patrick’s Day, you could be pinched,” Knoll said.
St. Patrick’s Day has become commercialized since the feast commemorating Saint Patrick in 1631. The leprechaun is one of the parts of St. Patrick’s Day that has been added in recent years, starting in the 1900’s when a movie regarding leprechauns came out around the time of St. Patrick’s Day.
“When I was a girl, my mother dressed my sister and I in green, and my dad bought us little shamrock pins with a little green hat. He claimed he almost caught a couple of leprechauns, but all he got were their hats as they got away. I really believed he almost got their gold because if you catch one, he has to tell you where his gold is hidden,” Knoll said.
St. Patrick’s Day continues to be a widely celebrated holiday to this day. Though it has gone through many changes throughout the years, the roots of why it started stay the same. It started to commemorate the life of a widely loved person—Saint Patrick.
