St. Patrick's Day

[Dantheman62]

Saint Patrick's Day — and the patron saint for which the holiday was named — has a colorful past filled with many traditions and stories. Upon closer inspection, it seems that a few of the legends told about Patrick were nothing but myth. We're here to clear the air.


How ironic is it that Ireland's patron saint wasn't even born on the island? St. Patrick was born with the given name Macwyn Succat around A.D. 385 in Scotland. It wasn't until he was kidnapped and enslaved by Irish bandits that he was brought to Ireland.


Popular myth speculates that St. Patrick chased all of the snakes from Ireland. In reality, there were never any snakes on the island. This myth is considered a metaphor for converting pagans and Druids to Catholocism and "chasing" them from Ireland.


Shamrock, or just sham? It's been told that St. Patrick used the three leaves of the shamrock to represent the Trinity (The Father, The Son and The Holy Spirit). This was never found in his writings, so is unsubstantiated.


Even though he is a Catholic saint, Patrick was actually born to a Roman Christian family. After six years in captivity, Patrick was said to have had religious dreams that told him to escape his captors and convert the people of Ireland to Catholocism.


The first St. Patrick's Day parade was actually in New York City in 1762. This American tradition, in which some cities such as Chicago dye their rivers green, was only recently adopted in Ireland.


http://events.yahoo.com/stpatricksday/2009/