St. Patrick's Day: Clover the Years
"Wishin' you a pot o' gold, and all the joy your heart can hold."
The final frost of a lingering winter gives way to the verdant green of fresh buds. The ushering of spring descends upon the land. Fields get speckled with bounding clovers, and sidewalks brim with the hustle of celebration. Eyes cast outward, eager in their search, while lips ever urge: "Stash your gold and bet on your luck, because it's that time of the year again!"
Saint Patrick's Day. A celebration of luck, gold, and leprechauns lying in wait past the ancient arch of rainbows. That's what we all remember it for, barely recalling the original story. We've all heard it before: the Irish patron saint had set sail, spreading God and philanthropy with each heartening step. He endured persecution, weathered the storms of life and sea, and faced a tragic yet peaceful demise, secure in his faith in the Almighty. His death on the 17th of March marks a day of commemoration and celebration to be carried through the centuries. It's approximately been celebrated for 400 years (1631-...).
In the beginning of those 400 years, the celebration took place as a simple feast commemorating the saint. They knew him as Maewyn Succat, actually an Englishman who converted on a pirate ship, desperate to be freed from the torment of captivity. He escaped to Ireland, where he changed his name to the famous Patricius or Patrick, meaning "father figure." This feast took place during Lent, and the holiday provided Christians leave from abstinence.
However, society has a tendency to break from tradition. Over time, the history of Saint Patrick's Day grew obsolete as the feast became no more than a jolly old holiday. Its inheritance lost, Saint Patrick's Day became a mere sum of its parts, festivities running dry of sentimentality. That's when the clover got introduced. The people traditionally thought that St. Patrick used the leaf to explain the nuance of the Trinity. Through this tradition, the Catholic Church tried to wrench the holiday back into religion. We all know how well their plan turned out.
Up until then, the holiday's representative color was-surprisingly-blue. This all changed, though, one fateful day in 1798, the year of the Irish Rebellion. As a symbol of defiance, the Irish wore green to contrast the British's red. This green became representative of Ireland, a tradition that got passed down to the celebration of its patron saint. Further Irish suppression, suffering, and immigration to the Americas only steeped the celebration deeper into national pride. (And that's where the leprechauns, Irish folk figures, come in!) Soon, St. Patrick's Day took on the mantle of the Irish holiday. Even as it spread across the globe, the holiday was understood to be a grand display of Irish national pride.
Today, St. Patrick's Day is commemorated but not celebrated for the saint. The religious symbols, through simplification and over-use, turned to superstition, and Saint Patrick became a mere name in the history books. Lost and forgotten, the saint lingers like a ghost haunting the bustling streets-never seen but ever present. And festivities presume on the day of his death, ever continuing clover the years.- Sarah T.