What is Saint Patrick's Day about?

Saint Patrick's Day commemorates the patron saint of Ireland, St. Patrick, who brought Christianity to the UK in the 5th century and explained its concept using the shamrock, a three leaved clover.

It is a Global appreciation of Irish history which usually involves music and dance and sometimes “drowning the shamrock”. Drowning the shamrock is a tradition whereby a shamrock is put into the last drink and when the drink has been drunk, the clover is thrown over the drinker's shoulder for good luck!

People who celebrate St. Patrick's Day commonly wear green, shamrocks and participate in parades. Even though it is a global festival it is still considered religious to some churches.

Saint Patrick

Saint Patrick was a Romano British Christian missionary and bishop in Ireland in the 5th century. Referred to as the apostle of Ireland, he is the primary patron saint of Ireland and Nigeria. Patrick was never formally canonised by the catholic church (which means the declaring a person worthy of veneration given to officially recognised saints), as he lived before the rules for this began. He is venerated as a saint in many churches and in some recognised as equal to the apostles as the “Enlightener of Ireland”.

When Saint Patrick was just 16, he was taken by Irish pirates from Britain and sent to Ireland as a slave. For the next six years he worked as an animal herder before escaping back to his family “when a voice told him he would go home soon”. He became a cleric and went back to Ireland to spread Christianity in northern and western Ireland. Later he became a bishop. By the 7th century he was recognised as the patron saint of Ireland.

He is said to have died on the 17th of March, which is why the celebration happens on that day. It is a religious and cultural holiday as well as a day of holy obligation and solemnity.

Saint Patrick wrote about the vision he had had a few years after returning home:

“I saw a man coming, as it were from Ireland. His name was Victoricus, and he carried many letters, and he gave me one of them. I read the heading: "The Voice of the Irish". As I began the letter, I imagined in that moment that I heard the voice of those very people who were near the wood of Foclut, which is beside the western sea—and they cried out, as with one voice: "We appeal to you, holy servant boy, to come and walk among us."