St Patrick’s Day is a famous religious festivity which is celebrated on the 17th of March in Ireland and the States. Its name is connected to the Roman Patricius who is commonly known to be the missionary who converted the country to Christianity in the 5th century. In fact, St Patrick’s is the patron saint of Ireland. This is an occasion for people to gather, enjoy music and dance as well as to organize lots of parties.
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
He was born into a Roman-Celtic family
in Wales in the late 4th century.
When he was only a young boy, he was kidnapped by Irish pirates to work as a
slave. After six years, he escaped and got back to Britain. There he became a
priest, and then a bishop: one day, according to the legend he had a vision of
an angel, who told him to return to Ireland. He was a poor
preacher, who travelled mostly on foot or by boat. He made difficult
religious concepts easy for Irish people: for example, to explain the symbol of
the Holy Trinity he used the shamrock which is now the symbol of this
festivity. People started to celebrate St Patrick’s Day in the early 17th century,
even if the missionary saint had already been celebrated in some Irish churches
for quite some time before.
ST PATRICK’S DAY IN THE STATES
American people also celebrate St Patrick’s Day. Ireland
experienced a terrible famine in the mid-1800s, also called “the Great Potato Famine” and, as a consequence, lots of Irish
people emigrated to the States to improve their lives. They were
affected by racial discrimination, consequently they decided to
organize parades through the streets to defend their heritage.
However, parades started in New York in 1762: a group of Irish men,
serving the British army, started the tradition of celebrating St Patrick’s Day.
Today hundreds of people march in parades, such as politicians,
school children, policemen, municipal workers, bagpipers and also common
people. It is a common tradition to use the colour green to
celebrate this holiday: they wear green clothes, they drink green beer or
milkshakes, they also decorate their streets with green garlands and, in
Chicago, they dye the river green. Music and dance are the protagonists of
these celebrations and lots of Irish families enjoy this day together in
pubs.
ST PATRICK’S DAY FOR IRISH PEOPLE
St Patrick’s Day became a national holiday in 1903 and, still
today, represents one of the most famous festivities in the country. The
tradition started in the 1920s when there was a military parade in
Dublin and, during the last decades, there have been lots of changes until in
the 1990s the Irish government promoted a five-day festival: people can attend
performances and a huge parade. As a national holiday it attracts more than
half a million spectators and they usually wear the colours of the Irish
flag, that is to say green ,white and orange.
On the 17th March 2021 Irish people experienced a different St Patrick’s Day: because of the pandemic COVID-19, they could only celebrate this holiday online. People watched livestreams from three main pubs in Ireland. Some famous bands took part in that event, such as “The Celtic Drummers” whose show was in Dublin and the folk band “Shamrock Tenors” who performed in Belfast.
Christian Lanciotti, 5^C Linguistico
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