Seasonal Wheel of the Year:
St. Patrick and St. Patrick's Day
By: Damien Wynter

St. Patrick's Day, a holiday especially important to the Irish,
is celebrated in many countries across the world
on March 17 of each year.
Most people would generally associate it with the color green,
four leaf clovers, luck, and drinking ale the entire day,
but there is so much more to be associated with this holiday.
For instance, how many people actually know
who the real St. Patrick was?
The folklore behind this special holiday, and the man
behind it, is all numerous.

St. Patrick is known as the patron saint of Ireland.
He is one of the most known saints in all of Christianity,
but what did he do?
Patrick's father was a deacon of the Christian church, but
according to the History Channel, there is no evidence
that Patrick's family was truly religious.
How is it that a boy who was raised in a nonreligious family
grows up to become a saint?

At sixteen, Patrick was abducted by Irish soldiers that were
raiding his family's home.
He was taken to Ireland where he was held captive for six years.
During his captivity, Patrick was a shepherd.
He spent his time in the fields away from people.
Being alone and afraid, he turned to religion
to help ease his pains and fears.
With his studies, Patrick became a devout Christian.
There are tales that state Patrick began to dream of his life's major
undertaking during the six years of captivity.

After six years, Patrick, allegedly lead
by a vision and the voice of God telling him it was
time to leave Ireland, escaped from his captives.
In order to make it back to his home in Britain,
he supposedly walked two hundred miles
from his captive site to the coast of Ireland.
Once back in England, Patrick was haunted
with another vision and a visit from an angel.
This time, the vision was very different.
He was to return to Ireland!
The mission this time was to be a missionary
to help bring people to God's Light.

After the second vision, Patrick began
his religious studies once more.
This time, the studies lasted over fifteen years.
After learning as much as possible and becoming
an ordained bishop,
Patrick returned to the country in which he had
been held prisoner with two missions.
His missions were to minister to the existing
Christians and to begin converting the rest of the Irish.
Ironically, the first mission of Patrick
counteracts one of the best known tales that
he introduced Christianity to Ireland.

With Patrick's conversion mission,
he was to convert the long time Pagans
to the path of Christianity.
Patrick employed some very tactful maneuvers
to make the conversion processes easier
for those that were set in their ways.
This process was tried and true
in many areas of the world already.
For instance, Easter celebrations were
celebrated with bonfires just as the Pagans
had done for centuries.
Fire was an important symbol in worship
of the many Celtic Gods that were known
to the Irish Pagans.
Incorporating it into a Christian celebration
allowed Patrick to begin to instill
the Christian beliefs in the Pagans.

During the conversion times in Ireland,
Patrick was also said to have invented a well
known symbol by combining the Christian
cross and a Pagan symbol of the Sun.
The resulting symbol is known today
as the Celtic Cross which is still recognized
by Pagans and Christians alike.
It features both elements intertwined
beautifully as a cross with a circle floating
gracefully centered with the imposed
area of the cross.
Incorporating the symbols together brought
in the concept of the cross to the Irish Pagans
in a way that wasn't as intrusive because it
contained one of their powerful symbols as well.

Around March 17, 460 A.D. (death date varies
as much as 30 years depending on sources),
St. Patrick died after some 40 years of ministry to the Irish.
Patrick died in Saul, where he had built
the first Christian church in Ireland.
Patrick left many disciples including Beningnus,
Auxilius, Iserninus, and Fiaac to continue in his work.

St. Patrick's Day, the anniversary
of the death of St. Patrick has been celebrated
as a religious holiday for centuries.
The holiday, which falls during the Lenten
season before Easter Sunday forced a change
in the observance of Lent in Ireland.
On this day, the prohibition of meat
from the Lenten diet was abolished in order
to allow for a joyous celebration and feast
of meat and ale in honor of the Patron Saint.
St. Patrick's Day was brought
into the United States by Irish soldiers
serving in the English Army.
The first St. Patrick's Day parade was held
in New York City in 1762 as these soldiers
marched through the streets playing music and waving banners.
It was their way of bringing a little piece of home with them.

In the mid-nineteenth century,
Irish immigration was at an all time high
as the Great Potato Famine swept across Ireland.
The Catholic Irish were met in the United States
with hatred and much discrimination
by the majority Protestant population.
Catholicism and religious freedom was the
reason the first settlers left Great Britain.
This religious intolerance left many of the Irish
unable to get jobs and also brought much
harassment from the American citizens.
Political cartoons showed them as drunken monkeys.

With Irish numbers increasing, they became
aware that their sheer numbers gave them a political advantage.
With some organization, they formed what
became known as the `green machine.'
The green machine was a monster at the polls.
The St. Patrick's Day parades became a show of strength
for the Irish citizens with their growing numbers.
Political figures took notice and the parades
became'the place to be' for many politicians.
A landmark in Irish rights and St. Patrick's Day came in 1948
when President Truman attended the New York parade.
North America now has the largest
production dedicated to St. Patrick's Day.

From the information presented here, one can see
where a lot of the symbols of St. Patrick came from.
Drinking ale comes from the drunken monkey cartoons.
The color green, the saying "Kiss me, I'm Irish" and the luck
of the Irish all stem from the `greenmachine' movement.

One symbol that has changed over time
is that of the four leafed clover.
The original clover had only three leaves.
St. Patrick himself used the clover
as a representation of the Holy Trinity.
The clover became a symbol of St. Patrick and thus a symbol
of Ireland and invariably St. Patrick's Day.