Today’s the day for the wearin’ of the green!  Ever since a kid in grade school I have always been so excited about St. Patrick’s Day.  I start decorating the house as soon as Valentine’s Day is over.

I had a couple of really fun, lively nuns who made St. Patrick’s Day so exciting.  One was even Irish…Sister Theresa Clare.  Such fun we had dancing and clapping to the Irish music, drawing shamrocks, and of course, wearing of the green.  The memories still stir my heart and make me teary.  My sister Theresa has me to blame for her name.  :  )

 As I had my own children, I continued my Irish traditions.  Now adults, my children still don’t let me “forget” to make them shamrock cookies.  Recently I was reminiscing with my boys, and one of the things we talked about were the shamrock cookies I made for them, year after year.  A couple weeks later I received a text message from one of them saying, “Remember we discussed shamrock cookies?  No reason…just sayin.  :  )”  Little did he know I had already taken them to the Post Office so they’d make their way to Chicago before St. Patrick’s Day…no matter that it cost a fortune to mail them.

As my Irish CD is playing all the Irish tunes while I am writing this article today, I find myself listening to the words and wondering about St. Patrick.  Who was he?  What was special about him?   A search on the internet brings up all sorts of stories.  I have listed a few interesting points I found on Wikipedia: 

Saint Patrick (estimated AD 387 – AD 461)(Latin: Patricius, Irish: Naomh Pádraig), said to have been born Maewyn Succat, was a Roman Britain-born Christian missionary and is the patron saint of Ireland along with Brigid of Kildare and Columba.

 When he was about sixteen he was captured by Irish raiders and taken from his native Wales as a slave to Ireland, where he lived for six years before escaping and returning to his family. After entering the church, he later returned to Ireland as a missionary in the north and west of the island, but little is known about the places where he worked and no link can be made between Patrick and any church.

By the eighth century he had become the patron saint of Ireland.  Legend also credits Patrick with teaching the Irish about the concept of the Trinity by showing people the shamrock, a 3-leaved clover, using it to highlight the Christian belief of ‘three divine persons in the one God’ (as opposed to the Arian belief that was popular in Patrick’s time).  March 17, popularly known as St. Patrick’s Day, is believed to be his death date and is the date celebrated as his feast day. 

On March 17, 1776, the day that British forces under General Sir William Howe evacuated Boston during the American Revolutionary War, the password of the day at General George Washington‘s Continental Army encampment was “Saint Patrick”. The date is observed as Evacuation Day, an official holiday in Suffolk County, Massachusetts, USA. Massachusetts has the most Irish ancestry of the United States in terms of percentage of total population.

In any case, breathe in the crisp spring air, put on some green apparel, and make this day one of the most exciting ever.  Dance and clap, laugh and play…joyfully place excitement in some little child’s heart so that 50+ years later they still tearfully remember the gift you placed there this fine day!