St. Patrick's Day
Culture
16/3/2009, Liz Patton
St. Patricks’ day has become synonymous withparades, pinching those who forgot to wear green, trying Irish foods, drunken revelry
and polluting perfectly fine brews with green food dye.
What was this holiday originally, and who is the man that it commemorates?
St. Patrick’s day has historically been a Christian holiday, but in the early 1900’s it became a national holiday in Ireland, and
has since become the day for everyone to celebrate his or her inner Irish.
Much of St. Patrick’s life is shrouded in mystery – due to a lack of paperwork surviving from the yearly centuries of the Church
in the British isles. He lived between about 360 and 460 A.D. and was a missionary to Ireland. He is credited with banishing “snakes”
and using the three-leaved clover to teach people about the Trinity. For more information have fun reading
Wikipedia's St. Patrick entry which, though it is Wikipedia and must be taken
with a grain of salt, it does have an extensive list of books on the subject.
How to celebrate St. Patrick's day:
1. Wear green. Though originally associated with a form of blue, now the American tradition is you get to pinch anyone who doesn’t
wear green. Though if you pinch someone who is wearing green watch out – They get to punch you.
2. Eat Irish for a day. Corned Beef is traditionally irish, but corned beef and cabbage is a New York invention.
3. Drink, if you’re of age and can. While green-tinted beer is sold by the barrel, there are better tasting alternatives such as
Irish whiskeys, Irish coffe, Bailey’s Irish cream, and Harp lager, Smithwicks Irish Red Ale, or Guinness stout ale.
http://www.st-patricks-day.com has a lot of information on parades around the world.
The .PDF of the sheet music. If you use it for your own gain, please give credit where credit is due.
About the Author
Liz Patton is the founder of Celtic Music Nations, an avid Celtic musician and fan. She has played guitar and bass for over a decade, and occasionally dabbles in other
Celtic instruments like mandolin, bodhran, fiddle and tin whistle. She wrote and edited for the University of Texas at Arlington's student paper for two years.
She has an Associate's in Commercial Music from South Plains College, and a Bachelor's of Music from UT Arlington.
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