ST PATRICK'S DAY

St Patrick's Day

It is celebrated on every 17th March.

It is celebrated by Irish people, but it is also celebrated in many countries.

People wear green clothes, eat Irish food, drink Irish beer and go to parades.

St Patrick

He is the patron Saint of Ireland.

St. Patrick was born in 385 AD in Wales.

At 16, some pirates captured and sold him into slavery to a sheep farmer. He escaped when he was 22 and spent the next 12 years in a monastery. At 30 he went to Ireland as a Christian missionary.

He died at Saul on the 17th of March in 461 AD and is buried at Downpatrick.

The Symbols

There are many symbols in St Patrick's Day:

Shamrocks

Snakes

Green colour

The Celtic Cross

Leprechauns

The shamrock

The national emblem of Ireland and Northern Ireland is the Shamrock.

Patrick used the three-leaved shamrock to explain how the Trinity of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit could exist as separate parts of the same being. His followers wore a shamrock in celebration.

This day people wear shamrocks when they celebrate.

The snakes

Saint Patrick is most known for driving the snakes from Ireland.

Serpent symbols were common in Celtic peoples.

Driving the snakes from Ireland is a symbol of putting an end to the pagan practice.

Green colour

Why do people wear green?

Green is the color of spring, the shamrock, and is connected with hope and nature.

Ireland is often called the "Emerald Isle" because its landscape is very green.

The Celtic Cross

It is a popular legend that the Celtic Catholic cross was introduced by Saint Patrick.

St Patrick combined the cross with the sun to give pagans an idea of the importance of the cross.

The leprechaun

A leprechaun looks like a little old man and dresses like a shoemaker.

Leprechauns are very unfriendly. They live alone and pass the time by mending the shoes of Irish fairies.

The fairies pay the leprechauns for their work with golden coins, which the "little people" collect in large pots.

The Traditions

People attend mass in the morning and celebrate in the afternoon.

They eat Irish bacon and cabbage and they drink black beer.

Some rivers are dyed green.

There are parades in many Irish cities and towns, but there are very big parades in many American cities, too.

The Parade

The first St. Patrick's Day parade was not in Ireland but in the United States. Irish soldiers serving in the English military marched through New York City on March 17, 1762.

Today, many people go out to see the parade where you can find many customs, Irish music with bagpipes, soldiers, Irish flags..., Irish culture.

Bibliografa

holidays.kaboose.com

en.wikipedia.org

www.history.com

www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk

www.st-patricks-day.com/about_saintpatrick.html

Images from Google Images