St. Patrick’s Day: Why green?
According to some accounts, the original color associated with St. Patrick’s Day was blue. But by the 17th century the popularity of wearing green during the St. Patrick’s Day celebrations grew. One of the colors in Ireland’s tri-color flag is green and throughout history that color has been used by several Irish revolutionary groups. One of the symbols of St. Patrick’s Day is the green shamrock.
Saint Patrick used the shamrock to explain the holy trinity to the pagan Irish. It was than later adopted by the “Society of United Irishmen”, an Irish political organization responsible for the 1798 Rebellion in Ireland. Wearing a shamrock signified your support for the Rebellion which is responsible for the famous saying “the wearing of the green”.
Wearing green now doesn’t have the same political connotations as it once did, but it will help you to avoid getting pinched. So wear your green and as the Irish saying goes “there are only two kinds of people in the world, the Irish and those who wish they were”. So come March 17 everyone will be Irish for a day! How will you be celebrating?
Please leave a comment below.
Thanks for reading,
Guest Blogger – Ashu
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You have it all wrong! Green is worn by the leprechauns as camouflage when hiding in the shamrocks!
How do I save this piece on the wearing of green on St. Paddy’s Day? I suppose I might be able to copy it & mail it to myself. Should be an easier way.
Thank you for that. I appreciate it. From one Irish Canadian girl.
I will be in Church, followed by a short span and then another Church.
Lepercans are green but they though it was blue cause of they rainbow it could also be gold
I believe its green because of the three leaf clover. witch stands for the father the son and the holy spirit. St. patrick was the first person to spread christianity to ireland. hope that helps a little bit
I have started already!!
My Niece’s birthday was today
Yes – but WHY did they change from blue to green? I wonder if it was because leprechauns are little and live on the ground. They were really easy to see and capture when they wore blue. They were running out of gold (the ransome paid to release them) but then realised they would not be seen in the grass if they wore green!
Ireland has always been referred to as the Emerald Isle due to it’s vast sweeping pastures that glisten in the morning dew like precious stones. This is why the color green is associated with Ireland.
First to comment, that doesn’t happen to me on new articles very often. Ha! And I wore blue today worried about getting pinched for not wearing green. Nobody pinched me, but I celebrated by going to a annual parade.
It is strange because today Ireland is multiracial, half of Irish are black or Asian or Eastern European
i think its probably because st patrick came to ireland, which is associated with the colour green, and/or because his symbol is the shamrock. hope that helped
I’m glad you brought into the facts that St. Patrick used the shamrock to expain the Holy Trinity because until just a few days ago, I learned that fact. Makes sense…green, Irish, Catholicism, etc. Do you realize why this holiday is usually celebrated witih drinking?
I like shamrock day because it reminds me of my Irish friends.
God Bless them, as they say in Ireland
This was so helpful, THANK YOU!!!