| End Time Warriors |
| Saint Patrick's Day |
Matthew 10: 1
He called His twelve Disciples to
Him and gave them authority to
drive out evil spirits and to heal
every disease and sickness
He called His twelve Disciples to
Him and gave them authority to
drive out evil spirits and to heal
every disease and sickness
Saint Patrick's Day
Saint Patrick's Day (Irish: Lá ’le Pádraig or Lá Fhéile Pádraig), colloquially St. Paddy's
Day or simply Paddy's Day, is an annual feast day which celebrates Saint Patrick (circa
AD 385–461), the most commonly recognised of the patron saints of Ireland, and is
generally celebrated on 17th of March.
The day is a national holiday of Ireland: it is a bank holiday in Northern Ireland and a
public holiday in the Republic of Ireland. It is also a public holiday in Montserrat. In
Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, the United States, Argentina and New Zealand, it is
widely celebrated but is not an official holiday.
St. Patrick's feast day was placed on the universal liturgical calendar in the Catholic
Church due to the influence of the Waterford-born Franciscan scholar Luke Wadding in
the early part of the 17th century, although the feast day was celebrated in the local Irish
church from a much earlier date. St. Patrick's Day is a holy day of obligation for Roman
Catholics in Ireland. The feast day usually falls during Lent; if it falls on a Friday of Lent,
the obligation to abstain from eating meat does not bind as St.Patrick's day in Ireland is a
first class feast, thus removing the obligation to fast or abstain. The church calendar
avoids the observance of saints' feasts during certain solemnities, moving the saint's day
to a time outside those periods. St. Patrick’s Day is very occasionally affected by this
requirement. Thus when 17th of March falls during Holy Week, as in 1940 when St.
Patrick's Day was observed on 3 April in order to avoid it coinciding with Palm Sunday,
and again in 2008, having been observed on 15 March. St. Patrick's Day will not fall
within Holy Week again until 2160 - when it will fall on the Monday before Easter.
Saint Patrick's Day is celebrated worldwide by those of Irish descent and increasingly by
people of other ethnicities as well, notably in Argentina, Australia, New Zealand and
North America. Celebrations are generally themed around all things Irish and, by
association, the color green. Both Christians and non-Christians celebrate the secular
version of the holiday by wearing green, eating Irish food and/or green foods, imbibing
Irish drink (such as Irish stout, especially Guinness, Irish Whiskey or Irish Cream) and
attending parades, which have a particularly long history in the United States and in
Canada.
As well as being a celebration of Irish culture, Saint Patrick's Day is a Christian festival
celebrated in the Catholic Church, the Church of Ireland, and some other denominations.
The day almost always falls in the season of Lent, and some bishops will grant an indult,
or release, from the Friday no-meat observance when St. Patrick's Day falls on a Friday;
this is sometimes colloquially known as a "corned-beef indult".
When 17 March falls on a Sunday, church calendars (though rarely secular ones) move
Saint Patrick's Day to the following Monday — and when the 17th falls during Holy Week
(very rarely), the observance will be moved to the next available date or, exceptionally,
before holy week. The public holiday in Ireland occurs on 17 March, unless that date
occurs at the weekend being fixed on the State calendar. In North American communities
with large populations of persons of Italian descent, St. Patrick's Day celebrations are
often combined with those of Saint Joseph's Day, which takes place on 19 March, two
days after St. Patrick's Day.
Green ribbons and shamrocks were worn in celebration of St Patrick's Day as early as
the 17th century. He is said to have used the shamrock, a three-leaved plant, to explain
the Holy Trinity to the pre-Christian Irish, and the wearing and display of shamrocks and
shamrock-inspired designs have become a ubiquitous feature of the day. The phrase "the
wearing of the green", meaning to wear a shamrock on one's clothing, derives from the
song of the same name.
History in Ireland
In the past, Saint Patrick's Day was celebrated as a religious holiday. It became a public
holiday in 1903, by the Money Bank. (Ireland) Act 1903, an Act of the United Kingdom
Parliament introduced by the Irish MP James O'Mara. O'Mara later introduced the law
which required that pubs be closed on 17 March, a provision which was repealed only in
the 1970s. The first St. Patrick's Day parade held in the Irish Free State was held in
Dublin in 1931 and was reviewed by the then Minister of Defense Desmond Fitzgerald.
Although secular celebrations now exist, the holiday remains a religious observance in
Ireland, for both the Church of Ireland and Roman Catholic Church.
It was only in the mid-1990s that the Irish government began a campaign to use Saint
Patrick's Day to showcase Ireland and its culture. The government set up a group called
St. Patrick's Festival, with the aim to:
— Offer a national festival that ranks amongst all of the greatest celebrations in the world
and promote excitement throughout Ireland via innovation, creativity, grassroots
involvement, and marketing activity.
— Provide the opportunity and motivation for people of Irish descent, (and those who
sometimes wish they were Irish) to attend and join in the imaginative and expressive
celebrations.
— Project, internationally, an accurate image of Ireland as a creative, professional and
sophisticated country with wide appeal, as we approach the new millennium.
The first Saint Patrick's Festival was held on 17 March, 1996. In 1997, it became a three-
day event, and by 2000 it was a four-day event. By 2006, the festival was five days long;
over 675,000 people attended the 2009 parade.
The topic of the 2004 St. Patrick's Symposium was "Talking Irish," during which the
nature of Irish identity, economic success, and the future were discussed. Since 1996,
there has been a greater emphasis on celebrating and projecting a fluid and inclusive
notion of "Irishness" rather than an identity based around traditional religious or ethnic
allegiance. The week around Saint Patrick's Day usually involves Irish language
speakers using more Irish during seachtain na Gaeilge ("Irish Week").
As well as Dublin, many other Irish cities, towns and villages hold their own parades and
festivals, including Cork, Belfast, Derry, Galway, Kilkenny, Limerick, and Waterford.
The biggest celebrations outside Dublin are in Downpatrick, County Down, where Saint
Patrick is rumored to be buried following his death on 17 March, 461. In 2004, according
to Down District Council, the week-long St. Patrick's Festival had over 2,000 participants
and 82 floats, bands, and performers, and was watched by over 30,000 people.
Belfast City Council recently agreed to give public funds to its parade for the very first
time. In previous years funding was refused by pro-British Unionist councilors in the city
for not being inclusive of Unionist citizens, the refusal to fund it was labeled as "anti-Irish
racism" by Nationalist Belfast councilors.
Since the 1990s, Irish Taoiseach have sometimes attended special functions either on
Saint Patrick's Day or a day or two earlier, in the White House, where they present a
shamrock to the President of the United States. A similar presentation is made to the
Speaker of the House. Originally only representatives of the Republic of Ireland attended,
but since the mid-1990s all major political parties in the Republic of Ireland and Northern
Ireland are invited, with the attendance including the representatives of the Irish
government, the Ulster Unionist Party, the Social Democratic and Labour Party, Sinn
Féin and others. No Northern Irish parties were invited for these functions in 2005. In
recent years, it is common for the entire Irish government to be abroad representing the
country in various parts of the world. In 2003, the President of Ireland celebrated the
holiday in Sydney, the Taoiseach was in Washington, while other Irish government
members attended ceremonies in New York City, Boston, San Francisco, Buffalo, San
Jose, Savannah, Chicago, Detroit, Philadelphia, San Diego, New Zealand, Argentina,
Hong Kong, South Africa, Korea, Japan, Brazil and Malaysia.
Christian leaders in Ireland have expressed concern about the secularization of St
Patrick's Day. Writing in The Word magazine's March 2007 issue, Fr. Vincent Twomey
stated that, "it is time to reclaim St Patrick's Day as a church festival". He questioned the
need for "mindless alcohol-fuelled revelry" and concluded that, "it is time to bring the piety
and the fun together".
In the United States
The White House fountain was dyed green in celebration of Saint Patrick's Day on March
17, 2009.
Early celebrations
Irish Society of Boston organized what was the first Saint Patrick's Day Parade in the
colonies on 17 March, 1737. The first celebration of Saint Patrick's Day in New York City
was held at the Crown and Thistle Tavern in 1766, the parades were held as political and
social statements because the Irish immigrants were being treated unfairly. and New
York's first Saint Patrick's Day Parade was held on 17 March, 1762 by Irish soldiers in the
British Army. In 1780, General George Washington, who commanded soldiers of Irish
descent in the Continental Army, allowed his troops a holiday on 17 March “as an act of
solidarity with the Irish in their fight for independence." This event became known as The
St. Patrick's Day Encampment of 1780.
Customs today
Today, Saint Patrick's Day is widely celebrated in America by Irish and non-Irish alike.
Many people, regardless of ethnic background, wear green-colored clothing and items.
Traditionally, those who are caught not wearing green are pinched, usually affectionately.
Seattle and other cities paint the traffic stripe of their parade routes green. Chicago dyes
its river green and has done so since 1961 when sewer workers used green dye to check
for sewer discharges and got the idea to turn the river green for St. Patrick's Day.
Indianapolis also dyes its main canal green. Savannah dyes its downtown city fountains
green. Missouri University of Science and Technology - St Pat's Board Alumni paint 12
city blocks Kelly green with mops before the annual parade. In Jamestown, New York,
the Chadakoin River (a small tributary that connects Conewango Creek with its source at
Chautauqua Lake) is dyed green each year.
Saint Patrick's Day (Irish: Lá ’le Pádraig or Lá Fhéile Pádraig), colloquially St. Paddy's
Day or simply Paddy's Day, is an annual feast day which celebrates Saint Patrick (circa
AD 385–461), the most commonly recognised of the patron saints of Ireland, and is
generally celebrated on 17th of March.
The day is a national holiday of Ireland: it is a bank holiday in Northern Ireland and a
public holiday in the Republic of Ireland. It is also a public holiday in Montserrat. In
Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, the United States, Argentina and New Zealand, it is
widely celebrated but is not an official holiday.
St. Patrick's feast day was placed on the universal liturgical calendar in the Catholic
Church due to the influence of the Waterford-born Franciscan scholar Luke Wadding in
the early part of the 17th century, although the feast day was celebrated in the local Irish
church from a much earlier date. St. Patrick's Day is a holy day of obligation for Roman
Catholics in Ireland. The feast day usually falls during Lent; if it falls on a Friday of Lent,
the obligation to abstain from eating meat does not bind as St.Patrick's day in Ireland is a
first class feast, thus removing the obligation to fast or abstain. The church calendar
avoids the observance of saints' feasts during certain solemnities, moving the saint's day
to a time outside those periods. St. Patrick’s Day is very occasionally affected by this
requirement. Thus when 17th of March falls during Holy Week, as in 1940 when St.
Patrick's Day was observed on 3 April in order to avoid it coinciding with Palm Sunday,
and again in 2008, having been observed on 15 March. St. Patrick's Day will not fall
within Holy Week again until 2160 - when it will fall on the Monday before Easter.
Saint Patrick's Day is celebrated worldwide by those of Irish descent and increasingly by
people of other ethnicities as well, notably in Argentina, Australia, New Zealand and
North America. Celebrations are generally themed around all things Irish and, by
association, the color green. Both Christians and non-Christians celebrate the secular
version of the holiday by wearing green, eating Irish food and/or green foods, imbibing
Irish drink (such as Irish stout, especially Guinness, Irish Whiskey or Irish Cream) and
attending parades, which have a particularly long history in the United States and in
Canada.
As well as being a celebration of Irish culture, Saint Patrick's Day is a Christian festival
celebrated in the Catholic Church, the Church of Ireland, and some other denominations.
The day almost always falls in the season of Lent, and some bishops will grant an indult,
or release, from the Friday no-meat observance when St. Patrick's Day falls on a Friday;
this is sometimes colloquially known as a "corned-beef indult".
When 17 March falls on a Sunday, church calendars (though rarely secular ones) move
Saint Patrick's Day to the following Monday — and when the 17th falls during Holy Week
(very rarely), the observance will be moved to the next available date or, exceptionally,
before holy week. The public holiday in Ireland occurs on 17 March, unless that date
occurs at the weekend being fixed on the State calendar. In North American communities
with large populations of persons of Italian descent, St. Patrick's Day celebrations are
often combined with those of Saint Joseph's Day, which takes place on 19 March, two
days after St. Patrick's Day.
Green ribbons and shamrocks were worn in celebration of St Patrick's Day as early as
the 17th century. He is said to have used the shamrock, a three-leaved plant, to explain
the Holy Trinity to the pre-Christian Irish, and the wearing and display of shamrocks and
shamrock-inspired designs have become a ubiquitous feature of the day. The phrase "the
wearing of the green", meaning to wear a shamrock on one's clothing, derives from the
song of the same name.
History in Ireland
In the past, Saint Patrick's Day was celebrated as a religious holiday. It became a public
holiday in 1903, by the Money Bank. (Ireland) Act 1903, an Act of the United Kingdom
Parliament introduced by the Irish MP James O'Mara. O'Mara later introduced the law
which required that pubs be closed on 17 March, a provision which was repealed only in
the 1970s. The first St. Patrick's Day parade held in the Irish Free State was held in
Dublin in 1931 and was reviewed by the then Minister of Defense Desmond Fitzgerald.
Although secular celebrations now exist, the holiday remains a religious observance in
Ireland, for both the Church of Ireland and Roman Catholic Church.
It was only in the mid-1990s that the Irish government began a campaign to use Saint
Patrick's Day to showcase Ireland and its culture. The government set up a group called
St. Patrick's Festival, with the aim to:
— Offer a national festival that ranks amongst all of the greatest celebrations in the world
and promote excitement throughout Ireland via innovation, creativity, grassroots
involvement, and marketing activity.
— Provide the opportunity and motivation for people of Irish descent, (and those who
sometimes wish they were Irish) to attend and join in the imaginative and expressive
celebrations.
— Project, internationally, an accurate image of Ireland as a creative, professional and
sophisticated country with wide appeal, as we approach the new millennium.
The first Saint Patrick's Festival was held on 17 March, 1996. In 1997, it became a three-
day event, and by 2000 it was a four-day event. By 2006, the festival was five days long;
over 675,000 people attended the 2009 parade.
The topic of the 2004 St. Patrick's Symposium was "Talking Irish," during which the
nature of Irish identity, economic success, and the future were discussed. Since 1996,
there has been a greater emphasis on celebrating and projecting a fluid and inclusive
notion of "Irishness" rather than an identity based around traditional religious or ethnic
allegiance. The week around Saint Patrick's Day usually involves Irish language
speakers using more Irish during seachtain na Gaeilge ("Irish Week").
As well as Dublin, many other Irish cities, towns and villages hold their own parades and
festivals, including Cork, Belfast, Derry, Galway, Kilkenny, Limerick, and Waterford.
The biggest celebrations outside Dublin are in Downpatrick, County Down, where Saint
Patrick is rumored to be buried following his death on 17 March, 461. In 2004, according
to Down District Council, the week-long St. Patrick's Festival had over 2,000 participants
and 82 floats, bands, and performers, and was watched by over 30,000 people.
Belfast City Council recently agreed to give public funds to its parade for the very first
time. In previous years funding was refused by pro-British Unionist councilors in the city
for not being inclusive of Unionist citizens, the refusal to fund it was labeled as "anti-Irish
racism" by Nationalist Belfast councilors.
Since the 1990s, Irish Taoiseach have sometimes attended special functions either on
Saint Patrick's Day or a day or two earlier, in the White House, where they present a
shamrock to the President of the United States. A similar presentation is made to the
Speaker of the House. Originally only representatives of the Republic of Ireland attended,
but since the mid-1990s all major political parties in the Republic of Ireland and Northern
Ireland are invited, with the attendance including the representatives of the Irish
government, the Ulster Unionist Party, the Social Democratic and Labour Party, Sinn
Féin and others. No Northern Irish parties were invited for these functions in 2005. In
recent years, it is common for the entire Irish government to be abroad representing the
country in various parts of the world. In 2003, the President of Ireland celebrated the
holiday in Sydney, the Taoiseach was in Washington, while other Irish government
members attended ceremonies in New York City, Boston, San Francisco, Buffalo, San
Jose, Savannah, Chicago, Detroit, Philadelphia, San Diego, New Zealand, Argentina,
Hong Kong, South Africa, Korea, Japan, Brazil and Malaysia.
Christian leaders in Ireland have expressed concern about the secularization of St
Patrick's Day. Writing in The Word magazine's March 2007 issue, Fr. Vincent Twomey
stated that, "it is time to reclaim St Patrick's Day as a church festival". He questioned the
need for "mindless alcohol-fuelled revelry" and concluded that, "it is time to bring the piety
and the fun together".
In the United States
The White House fountain was dyed green in celebration of Saint Patrick's Day on March
17, 2009.
Early celebrations
Irish Society of Boston organized what was the first Saint Patrick's Day Parade in the
colonies on 17 March, 1737. The first celebration of Saint Patrick's Day in New York City
was held at the Crown and Thistle Tavern in 1766, the parades were held as political and
social statements because the Irish immigrants were being treated unfairly. and New
York's first Saint Patrick's Day Parade was held on 17 March, 1762 by Irish soldiers in the
British Army. In 1780, General George Washington, who commanded soldiers of Irish
descent in the Continental Army, allowed his troops a holiday on 17 March “as an act of
solidarity with the Irish in their fight for independence." This event became known as The
St. Patrick's Day Encampment of 1780.
Customs today
Today, Saint Patrick's Day is widely celebrated in America by Irish and non-Irish alike.
Many people, regardless of ethnic background, wear green-colored clothing and items.
Traditionally, those who are caught not wearing green are pinched, usually affectionately.
Seattle and other cities paint the traffic stripe of their parade routes green. Chicago dyes
its river green and has done so since 1961 when sewer workers used green dye to check
for sewer discharges and got the idea to turn the river green for St. Patrick's Day.
Indianapolis also dyes its main canal green. Savannah dyes its downtown city fountains
green. Missouri University of Science and Technology - St Pat's Board Alumni paint 12
city blocks Kelly green with mops before the annual parade. In Jamestown, New York,
the Chadakoin River (a small tributary that connects Conewango Creek with its source at
Chautauqua Lake) is dyed green each year.