Happy St. Patrick’s Day! How a fifth-century Catholic missionary became a worldwide symbol for a good party
Hi everyone, welcome to Plain English, the podcast that goes at the right speed for English learners. I’m Jeff and today is Monday, March 19, 2018. On today’s program, we’ll talk about the St. Patrick’s Day holiday and how a celebration of Irish culture became such a worldwide event. At the end of the program, I’ll show you how to use the phrasal verb “scale back.”
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OK—time to get started on today’s main topic.
St. Patrick’s Day celebrations
Saturday was St. Patrick’s Day—a worldwide day to party and celebrate Irish heritage. How did the name of a Catholic missionary wind up being a symbol for drinking whiskey and beer, dancing, and dressing in green?
Let’s start with what St. Patrick’s Day, or the Feast of Saint Patrick, as it was originally known, is all about. Saint Patrick was a Christian missionary who lived in the fifth century AD and is credited with bringing Christianity, and Catholicism in particular, to Ireland in the year 432, or more than 1,500 years ago. According to his own writings, he was kidnapped and taken to Ireland as a slave at age 16. He escaped and returned home to Britain, where he became a priest. Later in life, he returned to Ireland, bringing Catholicism with him, converting the Irish, and eventually rising to become a bishop.
The Feast of Saint Patrick was celebrated by the Irish in Europe as early as the Ninth or Tenth Century, but became a Church holiday in the 17th Century, celebrated every March 17, the date on which it is believed that St. Patrick died. It became an official public holiday in Ireland only in 1903.
Today, the holiday is observed in Ireland as both a celebration of Irish tradition and as a holy day of obligation for Roman Catholics. The rest of the world knows it more as a celebration of Irish culture. The most visible way to celebrate, both inside and outside of Ireland, is through a parade. Parades usually include local politicians, police and firefighters, trade unions, school groups, bands, volunteers, civic groups—all types of organizations.
And of course, people wear green, the color that represents Catholics in Ireland. According to legend, Saint Patrick used the three-leaved shamrock to explain the Holy Trinity to the Irish people when he first arrived.
Official Ireland embraces the role St. Patrick’s Day plays in boosting its image around the world. Government officials pack their bags and travel as cultural ambassadors, visiting cities around the world, promoting Ireland and Irish culture. The Irish prime minister has an annual meeting with the president of the United States—a rare, regular appointment for a world leader.
And that points to such an interesting thing about St. Patrick’s Day: that it really is a reflection of how much the Irish people have influenced the world that a country of about five million people has inspired celebrations of its culture around the globe; landmarks from the Empire State Building to the Eiffel Tower to the Great Wall of China are all lit up in green to celebrate Ireland. There have even been St. Patrick’s Day celebrations in space. Ironically, it all began with a tragedy: the famines in Ireland in the 1800’s that caused over two million Irish people to flee to Britain and America. In all the places that Irish people wound up, they brought a celebration of their homeland with them every March 17.
Where I live in Chicago, we’re so Irish that we have three St. Patrick’s Day parades—the big one that goes through downtown, and smaller ones on South Side and the Northwest Side, the historically Irish parts of the city. Chicago also dyes the river green and our sports teams wear green jerseys for their St. Patrick’s Day games. New York and Boston also have big St. Paddy’s Day celebrations.
Unfortunately, for some, the holiday has become an excuse for partying and drinking in excess in public. In fact, some cities and towns are canceling or scaling back their parades due to the disorderly conduct that usually goes along with the celebrations. These towns want the parades to focus more on Irish culture, music and dance, and less on beer, whiskey and intoxication.
Before we get into the phrasal verb for today, I wanted to send a quick hi to Elisabet from Monterrey, Mexico. She said she listens to the program in the car on her way to work, which is a great way to use that time in the morning or the afternoon. Thanks for listening Elisabet and drive safely!
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