The History of St. Patrick’s Day
**Secret Revealed**
March 17th is the big day. I’m giving you some notice so you can dig to the bottom of your laundry pile, find your green shirt from last year and put it in the washing machine. If you can’t find a green shirt, go with a blue one instead. According to historians, blue was the original color associated with Saint Patrick. In fact, the 1912 dress code for Lord Chamberlain specified that the household of the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland should wear St. Patrick’s blue.
The 1924 Irish Olympic football team wore St Patrick’s blue and the Northern Ireland team (known then as the “Ireland association football team”) wore St. Patrick’s blue jerseys from 1882 until 1931, when they switched to green.
Let me tell you why…
Saint Patrick was born in Roman Britain in the fifth century. Although little is known about his early life, we know that he was kidnapped by Irish Raiders at age 16 and taken to Ireland as a slave. He said that God talked to him in a dream, telling him to flee from captivity and head for the coast where he could board a ship and return to Britain.
He did exactly that and upon returning to Britain, he studied to be a priest. He said he was called back to Ireland on a mission where he went as a bishop in the year 432. Apparently, he was very good at converting royalty, aristocracy and the poor. He was known for using the three-leaved shamrock to explain the Holy Trinity (the father, the son and the Holy Spirit) and the shamrock became his symbol.
People later wore shamrocks on their lapels during St. Patrick’s day. On St. Patrick’s day in 1798, Irish soldiers wore full green uniforms to make a political statement in support of the Society of United Irishmen — a political organization aimed at ending British rule over Ireland. Green became a symbol of rebellion and the famous ballad “The Wearing of the Green” was sung in the streets.
Because of this event, green eventually became the official color of St. Patrick’s day. It celebrated freedom from British rule and the shamrock paid tribute to St. Patrick himself.
St. Patrick’s day is a public holiday in Ireland, although it is widely celebrated in countries with large numbers of Irish descendants. It started as a feast day in the 1600s, a break during the fasting period of lent. We continue to indulge today, although that mostly involves green beer.
For this reason, I think the day after St. Patrick’s day would also make a good public holiday.
Chad Upton is the editor-in-chief of Broken Secrets and an official Yahoo Answers contributor.
Thanks for reading,
Source: History.com, St Patrick’s Blue, The Wearing of the Green, St Patrick’s Day
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
- Rating:
(18 votes, average: 3.78) - Permalink
- Comments (51)
Loading ...
Subscribe
No, I’ll wear what ever color I want.
You can were any color that you would like on Saint Patrick day i have went before without wearing green i thinks it is just a myth its not like your going to die if you don’t wear green !!! What do you still belive in santa and the easter bunny and the tooth fairy ? to hahahhahahahahahaha JK JK LOL !!!!
The wearing of Blue?
Why did they wear blue, you didn’t elaborate on that much. So tell me why I can wear blue, before I knock some girl sideways for pinching me in my blue shirt.
Saint Pat is only an excuse for a major piss up at home and abroad. He has to be the only Saint to have rid the country, not only of snakes, but fossils of them as well!
really?
You can also wear Orange, if you’re not a Catholic, as green is mostly a catholic thing and the non-catholics are known for wearing orange on the day.
sure you can wear whatever you want but wear green prevents you from getting pinched ! (: happy St.Patrick’s Day
I once got pinched in kinder garden so hard, that it made me draw blood.
My advice: Wear whatever you want and scold teh racist people.
Just don’t tell the Rangers fans,they’re already in a dark place.
Well you can wear any colour you want of course, but if you don’t wear green someone can pinch you
If you wear Orange in the Republic Of Ireland you would probably get bet up! (Prods vs Catholics)
i thought were suppose to run around naked and drink beer?
ive been doing it all wwwwrrrooonng
St .Pat was Welsh, and apparently color blind. He never made the transition from Priest to Bishop as there were no Cardinals in Britain at the time to inaugurate him and he never made a trip to Rome. A pound to a penny there will be more drunken Irish at the rugby match today than sober Sassenachs. Happy Paddy.
Wowzers. You learn something every day. I heard green goes to the Protestants (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints –with which I am affiliated– is not Protestant) and orange the Catholics (the LDS Church is not Catholic either), but I never thought of blue.
Also, although I am not of Irish descent, green and blue happen to be my favorite colors.
Sorry. Got it backwards on the Catholic/green and Protestant/orange thing. Thanks, Chris S.
AS for me I wareing of the Orange
I’m gonna wear pink instead
I skipped the article and drew the guy in the picture…
But yay! I have a lot of blue so I’m wearing blue! And if anyone pinches me, I will forewarn you. I keep a knife in my underpants…
No comment…
Did you know you
can wear blue on whatever day you want?
Thats great,but im pretty sure that most people don’t know you can wear blue as well,so they will think you are lying and pinch you anyway.Better stick with the green,it’ll save you from many pinches.
Yes, all that may be true… However, will that stop you from being pinched? lol ;P
It hardly matters what the historical truth happens to be. The reality is, if we don’t wear green, we’s gonna get pinched!!
I wore a blue shirt today. Then I added pins with green in them so I was wearing green.
I was wearing blue jeans and a blue t-shirt saying ipad
today!not irish.
cool
I would have liked a clearer explanation of why St Patrick’s colour was blue in the first place, if he was so associated with a green shamrock.
I have a feeling that this might be rooted in the Irish language. If we look at Scots Gaelic, this language did not formerly have separate words for green and blue. Each individual colour in Gaelic has a much broader range than we would have in English. For example, red — “dearg” could cover the spectrum from pink through to red and across to purple. The current word for blue — “gorm” — actually means a shiny black colour. Sometimes when things are a very shiny black, for example, a blackbird’s wing, it appears to have a blue-ish tinge. Grass can described as either blue, green or grey in Scots Gaelic, depending on whether it is new grass or healthy verdant grass. As Scots Gaelic and Irish are so very similar, I imagine that there was a similar situation in Irish with green and blue being considered the same colour hundreds of years ago, although not having studied it at all, I can’t say for certain.
In some languages, such as Japanese, green and blue are considered to be different shade of the same color. Green traffic lights in Japan, the very same shade of green that we have here, are universally perceived as “ao”, “blue”.
In some countries, like Japan, blue and green are considered different shades of the same color. Green traffic lights in Japan are universally perceived as “ao” (“blue”, as opposed to “midori”, “green”).
Not even kidding I wore blue yesterday!
You can wear any color you want on St. Patrick’s Day. In Ireland it would be stupid to only wear green — kind of like only wearing red on the Fourth of July. If anyone wears special colors over there (at least in the Republic) they wear green, white, and gold/yellow to represent the colors of their flag.
And for those of you who, like me, are of Irish descent, you could always take a hint from my Irish great-grandmother: you’re Irish (or part-Irish) every day of the year, you don’t need to wear a specific color one day out pf the year to show it.
I wore both green (traditional color of the holiday) and blue (originally St. Patrick associated with the color blue). How many points do I get?
Umm all of u who say that it is not true that u die if u don’t wear green. Where did u get that myth. If u don’t wear green on st.patricks day u will get pinched by people
umh okay ill still get pinched if i wear blue
Oooh, dear….
Blue was a traditional old Irish colour associated with St. Pat, alright…
…until 1932, when it was adopted as the official colour of the Irish Fascist organization, commonly called “the Blueshirts”!
Since then, wearing a blue shirt in Ireland is about as tactful as wearing a brown shirt in Germany or a black shirt in Italy.
Here you go, here’s a twinkly-eyed young feller a-wearin’ of the blue:
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Q3_BiBvomgI/TV9ndClBEfI/AAAAAAAADiM/kFpRkLnFA4k/s640/Blueshirts.jpg
Happy St. Pats!
I went to a parade on St. Patricks Day and it was all about Santa…? So I can definatly believe this information!
St Patrick’s origins are unknown, some say he was from Wales and some say he was from the north of France. He was kidnaped at 16 by Nial of the nine hostages. His father was some sort of a priest-ish kinda person. He was made mind sheep on the side of a hill in Co. Mayo. He had a dream where god showed him a way outa Ireland. He went to the docks where the boat was waiting. On the boat was a bunch of cross dogs that none of the sailers could tame and promised to grant Patrick a free lift to wherever if he could tame the dogs. He did and he got his free trip. When in his home town he started having dreams that the Irish people were calling to him. He went back and started converting people to Christianity. The reason he has his assioation to the Kings of Ireland is that he lit a fire on the hill of Tara and the Highking noticed the glow, was a bit peeved and sent for the person that lit the fire. Patrick was brought to the Highking and he converted him. Patrick is also supposed to have rid Ireland of snakes, apperently he hearded all the snakes in Ireland to a point in south Cork/Kerry and cut off the bit of land that the snakes were on and the snakes sailed away. I know all this as I am Irish and have been brought up in a very Christian family and attended only Christian schools.
Tóg go bóg é agus slán leat
Do chara
Donnachagh O’Gilligán
You can wear any color on St. Patrick’s Day, genius. That’s like saying you can wear colors other than red on Christmas.
I tell all of my friends about wearing blue T-shirts. i like blue tiny.
I took your advice and wore blue on St. Patrick’s day and I was pinched to death.
Now I am dead.
Thanks, Chad.
You can’t wear blue, its just not american
everyone knows Scotland has the Blue flag so those Irish would not want to go for that.
Wearing green on St. Pattys day is modern-day fashion tradition, like Red stockings on christmas
The way things seam now days I surprised no one has been charged for assault when they got pinched because they didn’t wear something green. I used to just tell people I was green with envy, worked a little while so I could get out of reach from them.
I can wear whatever color I like any day, including saint patrick
If you’re a UK fan you’d better be wearing blue until at least a week after the NCAA tournament!
I can wear any damn color I feel like wearing.
I wore blue on St. Patric’s Day. I always do.
Really.. wow i wish i would’ve known that on St.Patricks day i own like ten blue shirts lol
I’ll wear whatever color I want.
Happy St.Patrick’s Day! I love wear green dress to celebrate it with my best friends!
Ha Blue is also associated with Glasgow Rangers, so no self respecting Irish-Man would EVER be caught wearing Blue on Paddys Day. Neither would they be caught wearing orange on the 12th July.
I havent worn green for St Patricks day in over 10 years. Never once gotten pinched for it.
Hmmm. thtas probably the most interesting thing i’ve heard today.
I didn’t know that…oh well I usually wear a little green or blue even when its not St Patrick’s Day. It’s not like I would be pinched for not wearing green =P