St Patrick's Day
Happy Saint Patrick's Day!
This is yet another day of the year which I denerally look forward to in regards to giving the hard working uni student a night off studying! This year St Patrick's Day was even more special as it is also the birthday of my nre flatmate, Bridget. So after wearing green atire all day (in which green clothes plagued the entire uni), we all came home and got ourselves jazzed up in nice dressy green clothes and headed into town for dinner before heading out to an Irish pub for a drink, a came of pool and some Irish inspired dancing.
Seems I am a history major, it only seems fitting that a brief history of St Pat's day is mentioned:
Saint Patrick's Day is a yearly holiday celebrated on 17 March. It is named after Saint Patrick (cAD 387-461), the most commonly recognized of thepatron saints of Ireland. It began as a purely Christian holiday and became an official feast day in the early 1600s. However, it has gradually become more of a secular celebration of Ireland's Culture.
It is a public holiday on the island of Ireland. It is also widely celebrated by the Irish diaspora, especially in places such as Great Britain, Canada, the United States, Australia and New Zealand among others. Within New Zealand, as mentioned, green items of clothing are traditionally worn, and the streets are often filled with revellers (meaning uni students primarily!) drinking and making merry from early afternoon until late at night. As many people in New Zealand are of Irish descent, it is widely seen as a day to celebrate individual links to Ireland and all things Irish. The Irish have made a large impact in New Zealand's social, political and education systems, owing to the large numbers that emmigrated to the country during the 1800s. Saint Patrick's Day is seen as a way of remembering the input of the Irish that has made New Zealand the way it is today. That is, apart from the fact that it is just so much fun to particiapate in, especially the jolly atmosphere that accompanies it all.
Little is known of Patrick's early life, though we know he was born in Roman Britain in the fifth century, into a wealthy Romano-British family. His father was a deacon in the Church, like his father before him. At the age of sixteen, he was kidnapped by Irish raiders and taken captive to Ireland as a slave. It is believed he was held somewhere on the west coast of Ireland, possibly Mayo, but the exact location is unknown. According to his Confession, he was told by God in a dream to flee from captivity to the coast, where he would board a ship and return to Britain. Upon returning, he quickly joined the Church in Auxerre in Gaul and studied to be a priest. In 432, he again says that he was called back to Ireland, though as a bishop, to save the Irish, and indeed he was successful at this, focusing on converting royalty and aristocracy as well as the poor. Irish folklore tells that one of his teaching methods included using the shamrock to explain the Holy Trinity (the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit) to the Irish people. After nearly thirty years of teaching and spreading "God's word" he died on 17 March, 461 AD, and was buried at Downpatrick, so tradition says. Although there were other more successful missions to Ireland from Rome, Patrick endured as the principal champion of Irish Christianity and is held in esteem in the Irish Church,
Originally the colour associated with Saint Patrick was blue. However, over the years the colour green and its association with Saint Patrick's day grew.Green ribbons and shamrocks were worn in celebration of St Patrick's Day as early as the 17th century. He is said to have used the shamrock, a three-leaved plant, to explain the Holy Trinity to the pre-Christian Irish, and the wearing and display of shamrocks and shamrock-inspired designs have become a ubiquitous feature of the day.