HAPPY SAINT PATRICK'S DAY

Today is Saint Patrick's Day. Saint Patrick is the patron Saint of Ireland. So, it's a public/bank holiday in the Republic of Ireland and people of Irish heritage around the world celebrate this day with parades and of course, going to the pub, drinking, playing traditional Irish music (Ceilidh), and wearing green attires or Shamrocks (Three leaf clove), Many people eat the traditional Irish meal of corned beef, cabbage, potatoes, and soda bread.

Frankly, I had never heard of Saint Patrick nor this celebration until about twelve years ago. When my then Irish boss asked me about my birthday and upon telling her, lit up the room with her smile exclaiming "Saint Patrick's Day! although my birthday is actually a day later I understood what she meant.

So, every year, I look out for Saint Patrick's Day and promised myself that, any time I was in New York or Boston on March 17, I would attend one of the public parades. Unfortunately, this would not be happening this year because of the SARS-CoV-2 virus (COVID-19). 

The first Saint Patrick's Day parade in the United States took place in New York in 1762
I did a little research on this beloved Irish Patron Saint and it gave me an insight into Irish history. 

Saint Patrick was actually born in Roman Britain in 387 during the fourth century into a family of priests but was kidnapped at the age of 16 by Irish raiders and was taken as a slave to Gaelic Ireland. There, he was forced to tend to sheep. He was lonely and constantly prayed. At the age of twenty, he escaped his captors after he had a dream he believed came from God.  

In his dream, he was told to go to the coast, where he met a ship captain who took him back to Britain and he was reunited with his family.  He studied and became a priest and was later made a bishop. He then returned to Ireland and worked for forty years converting the Pagan Irish to Christianity. His efforts with the druids of the time became an allegory in which he drove the "snakes" out of Ireland.

Tradition says he died on March 17, 461 in the same place he had built his first church. And was buried in Downpatrick a small town south of Belfast.

To all my Irish folks, Happy Saint Patrick's Day!