Last summer I married an Irish girl. Half-Irish, to be exact, the other half being Lowland Scottish. This makes me a contractual Hybernophile, or a lover of Irish stuff. The word comes from the Roman name for Ireland: Hybernia. The Irish also use Hybernia as the poetic name for Ireland, like Caledonia for Scotland, Britannia for the UK, and Columbia for the US (see also: District of).
In Gaelic, the Irish call their homeland Eire which comes the long way around from a Germanic goddess named Eriu. Don't feel bad: they don't have a monopoly on Germanic deities. We celebrate the resurrection of our Lord and Savior on a day named after the Germanic fertility goddes Eostre. Also, all the days of the week. Except the 7th one which we named after the baby-eating Titan of Roman mythology, Saturn (Cronus in Greek).
St. Patrick
Today, March 17th, the entire world celebrates St. Patrick's day. I'm wearing green as I type this. After a little research, I discovered that St. Patrick is NOT the guy on the Lucky Charms box and he DOESN'T have a pot of gold hidden at the end of the rainbow. Who knew?
His original name was Maewyn Succat. I'm not sure how to pronounce that. I tried saying it to Aine, but she replied, not now, I have a headache. Whatever that means. Mr. Succat was born in Roman Britain in 387 AD, almost 400 years after the life of Christ, but still before a Catholic council decided which books to include in the New Testament and which to condemn as heresy. That's why you've probably never read such classics as the Gospel of Thomas or the Shepherd of Hermas. True story: when archaeologists found a copy of the Gospel of Thomas at Nag Hammadi, they found excerpts from Plato's Republic buried with it.
Back to Roman Britain. Let that sink in a moment. The patron saint of Ireland was British. But so were our Founding Fathers.
St. Patrick's story begins when he was sixteen. This is no accident. In Irish and Scottish culture, sixteen is the age you officially reach adulthood. Both of Aine's parents started out on their own at age sixteen. When Aine turned sixteen, her dad handed over her birth certificate and said, well, good luck. Remember, Jesus began his ministry at age thirty, the age of adulthood in Jewish culture.
Patty was minding his own business, strolling along the shore, when Irish Pirates swept down from the stormy seas, tied him up, and shipped him back to Ireland. There, as a slave, he tended sheep for several years. One night, God came to him in a dream and told him to escape. He got up, walked down to the docks, climbed aboard a ship and sailed to Gaul, known today as France, where he learned about Christianity.
You're probably wanting a bit of history to orient yourself. St. Patrick probably arrived in Gaul after 400 AD. The 40th Pope was working in St. Peter's Basilica, finished in 320. In 380, Emperor Theodosius made Christianity the official state religion of the Roman Empire. In 410, the Goths sacked Rome, marking the end of the Classical Era and the beginning of the Middle Ages. The Synod of Hippo met in 393 and picked the books of the Bible. Tough luck, Apocalypse of Moses. Here's your take away: St. Patrick grew up in a Roman World, but one where Christianity was coming into its own. A hundred years before, they were still throwing Christians to the lions.
After working his way up to Bishop in the Church, Maewyn Succat, who had by now taken the name Patrick, returned to Ireland to convert the pagans.
Snake Symbolism Again
St. Patrick is the Abraham Lincoln of Ireland. Every few miles you find an official St. Patrick site and much of Irish identity is bound to his deeds and exploits. While converting the Irish and breaking the cultural power of the Druids, Patrick drove all the snakes from Ireland. Not content with that, he dug up all fossilized remains and expunged all references to snakes in ancient texts so we have no historical or archaeological evidence that snakes ever existed on the island. He explained the concept of the Trinity using the shamrock: one leaf (compound palmate) divided into three parts (leaflets). Remember that. Shamrock. Not Four Leaf Clover. If you make that mistake in front of an Irish person, he or probably she will curse at you in Gaelic. Take my word for it. I have in-laws. My favorite Patrick story is when he returned to his former master to pay his ransom. After all, Patrick deprived the poor man of property without due process. Hearing that his former slave had returned, the former master killed himself by setting fire to his house and dying in the flames.
Patrick died on March 17 (see what they did there?), 461 AD in Downpatrick, Ireland. Technically, Downpatrick is in Northern Ireland, which, while on the island of Ireland, isn't part of the nation of Ireland. It's part of the UK and therefore occupied by imperialist Sassenachs. Sassenach is the Gaelic word meaning Saxon, used as a derogatory term for those of Anglo Saxon descent. Also, it's what my mother in law calls me when I make her mad.
How It Became a Thing
You have to work through four stages to become a Saint. You know, like you have to have Bobcat, Wolf, Bear, and Webelos before you can get your Arrow of Light. Only, for Catholics, the badges are Servant of God, Venerable, Blessed, and then Saint. To be canonized by the Pope and reach the fourth level, you have to perform at least two miracles posthumously in an act of intercession.
Patrick was never canonized by a Pope. During the first 1000 years of Christianity, canonization occurred at the local (diocesan) level. Everyone already declared a saint at that point was sort of grandfathered in. The day of Patrick's death, March 17th, was made a feast day in Ireland in the 9th century. On the official Roman Catholic feast calendar, St. Patrick's day is marked Optional.
Celebrate Good Times Come On
Much of what we consider St. Patrick's Day tradition started among Irish immigrants in America and migrated back across the Atlantic. In Ireland, the day was celebrated as a holy day and they ate boiled bacon and cabbage. Lent was suspended for that day only.
Irish Protestants (go figure) started celebrating in America as early as the 1730s. The first St. Patrick's day parade occurred spontaneously in New York in the 1760s when Irish serving in the British Army marched down the street raising a ruckus. Not wanting to be outdone, Dublin and Belfast started hosting parades, too.
The Irish made the day a national holiday in 1903. Due to the Irish being Irish, the British, still in control of Ireland at the time, passed a law banning alcohol on March 17th. The Irish parliament voted to repeal the ban in 1970. The Irish government started hosting a yearly festival in the mid-90s.
In the United States, St. Patrick's day is a legal holiday in two places: Suffolk County, Massachusetts and Chatham County, Georgia. Chicago dyes the Chicago River green. Previously, they used a 100 lbs of vegetable dye which lasted a week. They've cut back to 40 lbs which only lasts 8 hours. Irish immigrants in the US started substituting corned beef for bacon and that has become the traditional meal for St. Patrick's day. Like black eyed peas and cabbage on New Year's. The Irish don't consider corned beef an Irish dish, but they serve it to tourists who think it is. Sort of like crispy tacos in Mexican Restaurants. I've never seen a Mexican eat a crispy taco.
Every year since 1991, the POTUS issues a proclamation declaring March as Irish Heritage Month and the Irish Taoiseach comes for an official visit. You pronounce Taoiseach like tee zhah, only when you get to the end, make a noise in your throat like you're hocking a loogie. When Irish people say Taoiseach, they mean Prime Minister. Which begs they question why they don't just say Prime Minister.
Wearing of the Green
The color associated with St. Patrick was blue. But we wear green. So it goes.
The Irish used to pin shamrocks to their lapels on St. Patrick's day. They called it The Wearing of the Green. You know, because a shamrock is green. It became a political statement during the Irish Rebellion of 1798. One that meant: "British go home." The 1798 rebellion just happened to be the bloodiest and most violent rebellion in Irish history. And there are plenty to choose from. Irish soldiers took the wearing of the green to another level by wearing all green uniforms and the rest is history.
So for the Irish, St. Patrick's day is not just a day to get drunk. It's their Thanksgiving, New Year's, Memorial Day, and 4th of July all rolled into one.
There's an old Irish ballad commemorating the wearing of the green. Like all Irish ballads, a lot of people die in it.
Parting Shot
Erin Go Bragh means "Ireland Forever." It's an anglicisation of the Gaelic Eirinn go Brach. I have no idea how to pronounce it. In Scotland, they say Alba Gu Brath, meaning "Scotland Forever." You pronounce that one like: alpapa ku pra. I don't know why. See, there's old Gaelic which Scotland and Ireland share, then there's Modern Gaelic which they speak in Ireland and Scots Gaelic which they speak in Scotland. It's a mess.
Alba is the Scots Gaelic word for Scotland which comes from the Greek (go figure) Albion. Go bragh and gu brath literally mean "until Judgement Day."
Sean Connery has Alba Gu Brath tattooed on his arm.
And if you were curious: Sun Day, Moon Day, Tyr's Day, Wodin's Day, Thor's Day, Freya's Day. So there.
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