St. Patrick's Day - Ireland

In America, St. Patrick’s Day, on March 17, is celebrated with fun festivities.  Not until recent decades, the holiday, which honors Ireland’s patron saint, was actually more conservative; and family and religiously orientated.

St. Patrick

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According to the History Channel, St. Patrick’s Day is named after a man who was “born into an aristocratic family in Roman Britain around the end of the fourth century.”  As a teenager, he was kidnapped by Irish pirates and taken to Ireland, where he was a slave for many years.  The History Channel also states he escaped the island, became a missionary, and converted part of the population to Christianity.  Centuries after his death, “which some sources cite as March 17th, 461” (exact date is unknown), Patrick became the patron saint of Ireland.  March 17th became a holy day of obligation for the nation’s Catholics.  The History Channel also stated that Irish immigrants in the United States and elsewhere made St. Patrick’s Day from a religious holiday into a materialistic celebration of all things Irish.  The first St. Patrick’s Day parade was “held in New York City in the 1760s, by Irishmen serving there in the British military.”  During the 19th century, when Irish Catholic immigrants faced discrimination in the mainly Protestant faith America, St. Patrick’s Day parades turned into a chance to show strength in numbers.

While St. Patrick's Day is now a national holiday, as well as a religious feast day, a few hundred years ago, the emphasis was on spirituality and a break from Lent.  Bridget Haggarty referenced the books The Year In Ireland by Kevin Danaher and Chronicle of Celtic Folk Customs by Brian Day to write her article “Celebrating St. Patrick's Day in Old Ireland.”  According to Haggarty, families would attend Mass and every child proudly wore a St. Patrick's Cross.  The week before the festival, children would make the crosses; which differed depending on whether you were a boy or a girl.  Haggarty stated that the finished cross for the boys was worn military style on their cap.  A girl would wear her cross pinned at the right shoulder on her chest.  It is also considered a major honor for a girl to wear a boy's cross or vice-versa. 

Besides the crosses for children, there was another type which was made only by the men.  Haggarty states this was “formed out of twigs and, as with the St. Brigid's Cross, it was pinned to the thatch on the inside of the house.”  Each year a new one would be added.

According to Haggarty, when Mass was over, the mother and children would go back to the house to start making the feast.  The men would head to the pub to drink the 'Pota Pádraig' or St. Patrick's Pot.  This term was also applied to any treats or money given to friends or children.  After drinking the St. Patrick's Pots, the men go home to the feast. 

Haggarty states that usually the wife and children would make cured pork, colcannon (mixture of potatoes, green cabbage, and kale topped with butter) and soda bread for dinner.  For dessert, they would make apple ambers or Donegal oatmeal creams.  Corned beef with cabbage, cornbread, and green beer were not a traditional as of back then or presently.  It is a “custom that was begun by emigrants who, in longing for their native land, tried to create a meal that would remind them of home.”  

   

Non-traditional St. Patrick's Day Food/Drink

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Traditional St. Patrick's Day Food

Cured Pork

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Colcannon

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Irish Soda Bread

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Apple Amber 

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Oatmeal Cream

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Old Irish Pub 

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For more information, visit: http://www.history.com/topics/st-patricks-day

Make sure to return next week for another exciting blog about a holiday and related recipes!

Works Cited

History Channel Staff. Is St. Patrick's Day celebrated in Ireland? A&E Television Networks. (2014, March 17). Retrieved February 15, 2015.

Bridget Haggarty. Celebrating St. Patrick's Day in Old Ireland - World Cultures European. Irish Cultures and Customs. (2011, March 14). Retrieved February 15, 2015,