WEEK 8 – ST. PATRICK'S DAY IN ISOLATION
- Joe Breen
- Apr 19, 2020
- 3 min read
Updated: May 5, 2020
There was no lecture this week. This was because this Tuesday was the 17th of March, which is well known as St. Patrick’s Day. St. Patrick’s Day is an annual religious celebration to mark the traditional death date of Saint Patrick.
There are several traditions to consider that are associated with St. Patrick’s Day. Some are associated with religious traditions, others relate to cultural traditions where people celebrate being Irish for the day, even those who have no connections with Ireland (1). On this day, celebrations are held by the Irish population. Street parades, festivals, music, céilí, shamrocks, green attire and green accessories are amongst the many things that take place during this annual celebration. This day is one of the most popular days of the year. This day usually attracts many tourists from other countries to Ireland so they can experience the Irish culture themselves. And the more tourists that come, the better the business for many companies throughout Ireland.
However, some of these examples of St. Patrick’s Day celebrations, especially the parades and festivals did not occur this year, thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic. Because of the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic, all parades and festivals across Ireland were cancelled because of the risk that they’d inflict on the public. On the day, myself and my family forgot to wear green. This is because since all the events were cancelled, we sort of forgot that it was St. Patrick’s Day. And I’m sure that other felt like this too. This is the topic that I going to discuss in this blog post: why green is the colour we wear on St. Patrick’s Day. I know that green is an Irish colour, but I'm sure that there’s another reason why.
I did a bit of research, and I found out that green wasn’t the original colour for St. Patrick’s Day. The original colour was actually.... blue. Some of you might be asking why blue was St. Patrick’s Day’s original colour. Here’s why. Early portraits of St. Patrick show him wearing blue, and the original colour was a sky blue known as “St. Patrick’s Blue” (2).
So why was the original colour of St. Patrick’s Day changed from blue to green?
Here’s why.
The politics of changing the national colour to green may have been a sign of Irish attempts at independence, but it wasn’t the entire country that wore green. In fact, the colours worn by the population of Ireland depended on what religion you were: If you were Catholic, you wore green to represent your Irish heritage, and if you were Protestant, you wore orange. Another reason why was because of The Emerald Isle, Ireland’s nickname (3). Also, there’s the green stripe in the Irish flag, which represented the Catholics of Ireland, as St. Patrick ministered Christianity and used shamrock in his teachings, which were another reason. Leprechauns were another reason as they’re rarely seen in anything other than green, and legend has it that they pinched anyone not wearing green (4).
Overall, don’t you think that’s reason enough for why green is the national colour for St. Patrick's Day? I know I do.
References:
1. Ó' Longáin, S. (2020) 'St. Patrick's Day Celebrations & Traditions' , Your Irish Culture [online article] (Accessed 19th April 2020); https://www.yourirish.com/traditions/celebrating-st-patricks-day
2. Esposito, S. (2015) 'Should We Be Wearing Blue on St. Patrick's Day?' , Smithsonian Magazine [online magazine article] (Accessed 19th April 2020); https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/should-st-patricks-day-be-blue-180954572/
3. Reilly, G. (2013) 'So you know Ireland's national colour might not be green right?' , thejournal.ie [online news article] (Accessed 19th April 2020);
4. Nowak, C. (n.d.) 'Why Do We Wear Green on St. Patrick's Day?' , Reader's Digest [online article] (Accessed 19th April 2020); https://www.rd.com/culture/wear-green-st-patricks-day/
Picture Reference:
Carnifest (2020) 'St. Patrick's Day in Sydney 2021' [article] (Accessed 4th April 2020);
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