St Patrick’s Day has become one of the most celebrated saint’s days, not only in Ireland but all over the world. But are people still honouring the true meaning of the day itself, or is it just an excuse for Ireland to shut their commercial properties and have a good old knees up?
Born in 400AD, St Patrick was the patron saint of Ireland, and was credited with bringing Christianity to the country. He used a shamrock, a three leaved plant, to explain the story of God to non-believers. It is believed that St Patrick died on the 17th March, which is why he is honoured on that day.
Thanks to its historic routes, the shamrock become the national flower of Ireland and is worn by many on St Patrick’s Day.
In the early years, St Patrick’s Day became a holy day, where people would attend church and offer prayers in congregations. However, as time passed, more and more people started celebrating the day outside of church – and so, in 1903, St Patrick’s Day officially became a public holiday in Ireland. A law was also passed that required commercial properties serving food and alcohol to close during this day in Ireland, but this was revoked in the 1970’s.
Nowadays, the complete opposite happens, as the majority of commercial properties and offices close for the day – apart from public houses!
Since 1996, the Republic of Ireland’s Government has held an annual festival, St Patrick’s Festival, to mark this symbolic day and showcase Irish culture to the rest of the world.
This year, the festival runs from 16 March to 19 March and includes a parade, funfair, a race, beer festival, street performances, treasure hunt and much more.
As well as Ireland, many other countries celebrate St Patrick’s Day, but unfortunately they don’t benefit from commercial properties closing or a public holiday. Instead, people dress up in green to honour the shamrock colours, drink large amounts of Guinness and other alcoholic beverages and sing and dance to Irish music. Countries which participate in this, in their own way, are: The United States of America, Argentina, Canada, Great Britain, New Zealand and Australia.
But has St Patrick’s Day lost its original routes, and has it just become a tradition to drink vast amounts of alcohol? Father Vincent Twomey, a Catholic priest, thinks so: “Paddy’s Week is descending into an excuse for mindless alcohol-fuelled revelry.
“It is time to reclaim St Patrick’s Day as a Church festival, one that should have a special ecumenical perspective, since all Christians in Ireland trace the origins of their faith back to Patrick.”
