The Irish all over the world gather on March 17 to celebrate the feast of their culture, St. Patrick, BGNES reminds.
On this day, all Irish people celebrate, wherever they are in the world. In many countries on the planet, this day is considered a feast of the Irish soul.
Legends tell that the patron saint of Ireland, St. Patrick, was born in Banwen, Wales, approximately in 385. He was given the name Mewyn. Until the age of 16, he was considered a pagan. At that age, he was kidnapped and sold into slavery by a group of Irishmen who attacked his village.
During slavery, he became closer to God. After six years, he managed to escape to Gaul. For twelve years, he studied in a monastery. During this time, he realized that he was called to baptize the pagans. Subsequently, he was ordained a deacon, then a preacher, and finally a bishop. In the meantime, he took the Christian name Patrick and was appointed the second bishop of Ireland.
Patrick traveled frequently in Ireland and beyond, visiting many places that were later named after him. He established schools and churches to help him preach Christianity in Ireland. His mission there lasted 30 years. Then he retired to County Down. He died on March 17, 461. Since then, this date has been celebrated as Saint Patrick's Day.
In addition to truth, there is a lot of mysticism and fiction in the stories about Saint Patrick. One belief is that he resurrected dead people. Another is that he delivered a sermon from a hill and with it drove out all the snakes from Ireland, where there are no snakes and never have been. Although originally a Catholic holiday, St. Patrick's Day has become more of a secular holiday.
The traditional symbol of the Day is the shamrock, which is the emblem of Ireland. According to one legend, St. Patrick used a three-leaf clover in his sermons to explain the trinity of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The day of the saint's celebrations is marked almost entirely in green - people wear green clothes, eat green food and even drink the famous green beer to mark the significance of the shamrock symbol.
One of the popular Irish toasts in honor of St. Patrick reads: "May the roof above us never fall and may we, the friends, under it never give way!"
In the United States, for the first time, St. Patrick's Day Patrick's Day was celebrated in Boston in 1737. Today, about 34 million Americans are proud of their Irish ancestry.
In Ireland, the date is celebrated en masse with parades, charity events and lots of green-colored beer. The largest celebrations of the holiday take place in Dublin, where hundreds of thousands of people gather every year. In Chicago, the river remains green for hours, and New York gathers the largest crowds, marking the merits of St. Patrick in Christian history. In the Southern Hemisphere, the largest celebrations are in Sydney, Australia. Today, St. Patrick is celebrated all over the world. /BGNES