Happy St. Patrick’s Day – 17th March

St Patrick’s Day is a global celebration of Irish culture on or around March 17.  It particularly remembers St Patrick, one of Ireland’s patron saints, who ministered Christianity in Ireland during the fifth century.  He was born in Roman Britain to a wealthy family near the end of the fourth century. At age 16, he was captured by Irish raiders and brought to Ireland, where he spent six years in captivity, working as a shepherd. He became a devout Christian and, it’s believed, began to dream of converting the Irish to Christianity. He then escaped back to England. He wrote that a voice — God’s — spoke to him in a dream telling him to leave Ireland.

After reaching England, Patrick described having a second dream in which an angel told him to go back to Ireland as a missionary. He started religious training to become a priest. He was later sent to Ireland on a mission to convert the Irish to Christianity and minister to Christians already there. Rather than replacing pagan Irish rituals, he incorporated them into his teachings. For instance, the Irish used to honor their gods with fire, so Patrick used bonfires to celebrate Easter. He died in A.D. 461 on March 17, which became St. Patrick’s Day.

Wearing green has become a staple of St. Patrick’s Day, but the holiday was originally associated with the color blue. It’s thought that the shift to green happened because of Ireland’s nickname “The Emerald Isle,” the green in the Irish flag and the shamrock, or clover. Green ribbons and shamrocks were worn as early as the 17th century. During the Irish Rebellion of 1798, an uprising against British rule in Ireland, Irish soldiers wore full green uniforms on March 17 to make a political statement.

Legend has it that wearing green makes a person invisible to leprechauns that will pinch someone if they see them. The symbol of St. Patrick is a three-leaf shamrock, not a four-leaf clover.  In Ireland, some people still adhere to the tradition of Catholics wearing green and Protestants wearing orange, the colors that represent their respective religious sects on the Irish flag.

St. Patrick’s Day is the traditional day for planting peas. Cabbage seeds are often planted today, too.

Celebrations and Céilidhs are common as is the imbibement of alcohol particularly Guiness and Irish whisky.

Here are 2 recipes: one for Irish Jelly Shots and the second for a delicious Guinness Chocolate Cake with Irish Buttercream

Irish Jelly Shots!