Think green for St Patrick’s day

JOHANNESBURG – What began as a religious feast day for the patron saint of Ireland has become an international festival celebrating Irish culture with parades, dancing, special foods and a whole lot of green.

March 17, AD 461 is believed to have been the date the saint’s death. The Irish have observed this day as a religious holiday for over 1 000 years.

St Patrick’s Day falls during Lent, but Lenten prohibitions were waived and people would dance, drink and feast. Born in Roman Britain, Patrick was kidnapped and taken to Ireland as a slave at the age of 16.

He later escaped, but returned to Ireland and was credited with bringing Christianity to its people. In the centuries following Patrick’s death, the mythology surrounding his life became ever more ingrained in the Irish culture.

Perhaps the most well known legend is that he explained the Holy Trinity using the three leaves of a native Irish clover, the shamrock. It has long been recounted that, during his mission in Ireland, St Patrick once stood on a hilltop and banished all the snakes from Ireland. In fact, the island nation was never home to any snakes.

The ‘banishing of the snakes’ was really a metaphor for the eradication of pagan ideology and the triumph of Christianity.

Since around the ninth or 10th century, people in Ireland have been observing the Roman Catholic feast day of St Patrick. Interestingly, however, the first parade held to honour St Patrick’s Day took place not in Ireland but in the United States. On March 17, 1762, Irish soldiers serving in the English military marched through New York City.

Today, New York’s St Patrick’s Day parade attracts over 150 000 participants and nearly three million spectators. As Irish immigrants spread out over the United States, other cities developed their own traditions. One of these is Chicago’s annual dyeing of the Chicago River green.

The practice started in 1962, when city pollution-control workers used dyes to trace illegal sewage discharges and realised that the green dye might provide a unique way to celebrate the holiday.

That year, they released 100 pounds of green vegetable dye into the river – enough to keep it green for a week!

Today, people of all backgrounds celebrate St Patrick’s Day, especially throughout the United States, Canada and Australia. Although North America is home to the largest productions, St Patrick’s Day is celebrated in many other locations far from Ireland, including Japan, Singapore and Russia.