St. Patrick’s Day, What are we really celebrating?
I am not a fan of St. Patrick’s Day but I have found different more aligned ways to embrace Irish ancestral culture.
So, the superficial story is that St. Patrick’s Day is the celebration of the arrival of Christianity to Ireland. In modern times here in the US it is celebrated by spending an entire day wearing green, getting pinched if you don’t wear green, drinking green beer, eating food dyed green, parades, setting leprechaun traps, and looking for four-leaf clovers.
As a child, it was a fun day, other than the year I forgot to wear green and was bruised for a few days from all the pinching I received. It was also my kindergarten teacher's, who was also my dad’s teacher and later my school principal's, birthday. Being in a small town at a small school meant we all celebrated it, so cupcakes and parties filled the day.
When my children were very little we built leprechaun traps, baited with fake pots of gold, and in the morning discover the tap had gone off, but somehow the leprechaun always escaped leaving us gold chocolate coins.
At some point, I went down a deep rabbit hole of historical research (I love researching things) of the origins of certain holidays. After that, the frivolous innocence of St. Patrick’s day was gone for me.
Regardless of what your Spiritual or Religious belief system may be, I think most of us can agree that the celebration of patriarchal religious colonization and destruction of indigenous traditions, basically an attempt at cultural genocide, is not ok.
Unfortunately, it has happened thousands of times over the centuries all over the world.
It is said that St. Patrick drove out the “snakes”. Ireland has not had indigenous snakes since the last ice age. These snakes were Druids, pagans, people who celebrated nature, and those who worshipped Divine Feminine.
It wasn’t a one-day event by one guy.
It was an aggressive, brutal, bloody, slow war and took a very long time, at least 100 years some say 400 years, and was not fully successful.
Horrible things were done, and thousands died but the traditions still remain.
Celebrate or don’t celebrate St. Patrick’s Day however you want.
I am a huge advocate for freedom of choice in how you live your life.
I personally like to acknowledge and celebrate the mix of cultures and belief systems. I try different foods, learn about other traditions, learn a few phrases in Gaelic, experiment with different crafts, and play hide-and-seek with leprechauns.
You won’t find me drinking green beer, yuck, or wearing all green, don’t try to pinch me, I am a middle-aged Gen X woman – you don’t want to find out what happens when you pinch us.
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