St. Patrick's Day
March 17 is Irelands greatest holiday as well as holy day.  The festival is held in honor of St. Patrick, Ireland's beloved saint.  St. Patrick's life is so strewn with loving legends that separating historical facts from imaginary ones is still a big task for the researcher.
Patrick, patron saint of Ireland, was born in either Scotland, England, Wales, or France, but definetly not in Ireland.  His given name was not Patrick but Maewyn.  Or Succat.  He barely became bishop of Ireland, because his superiors felt he lacked the finesse and scholarship the position called for.  Nonetheless, he did do something that made him a saint and merited him a holy day--now more of a holiday.  Many facts about Patrick have been distorted under the weight of Irish folklore.
He was born about A.D. 385, most likely in a small village near the mouth of the Severn River in what is now Wales.  The region was part of the vast Roman Empire.  He was by the locale of his birth Romano-Briton, by parentage a Roman Catholic; by his own later admission, until age sixteen he was covetous, licentious, materialistic, and generally heathen.  When he was sixteen, a group of Irish marauders his village and carried off Patrick and hundreds of other young men and women to be sold as slaves.  Escaping Ireland and slavery, he spent a dozen idyllic, studious years at a monastery in Gaul under the tutelage of St. Germain, bishop of Auxerre.  Germain instilled in Patrick the desire to convert pagans to Christianity.  As a priest, Patrick planned to return to pagan Ireland as its first bishop.  But his monastery superiors felt that the position should be filled by someone with more tact and learning.  They chose St. Palladius.  Patrick importuned for two years, until Palladius transferred to Scotland.  By the time he was appointed Ireland's second bishop, he had already adopted the Christian name Patrick.  His imposing presence, unaffected manner, and immensely winning personality aided him in winning coverts, which aggravated Celtic Druid priests.  A dozen times they arrested him, and each time he escaped.  After thirty years of exemplary missionary work, Patrick retired to Saul in County Down, where he died on March 17, his commemorated "death day", in or about the year 461.  He is believed to be buried in Downpatrick, and many pilgrims each year visit a local tombstone, carved with a "P", which may or may not mark his grave.
The legend told that St. Patrick drove the snakes out of Ireland.  The Irish will tell you that you cannot find a snake in all Ireland!  One story relates that one old snake refused to leave, so St. Patrick made a box and asked the serpent to enter.  The creature objected, saying it was too small.  The saint insisted it was big enough to accomodate him and urged him to try it again.  After some grumbling, the snake got into the box just to show it was too small, and at once St. Patrick clamped down the lid and tossed the container, snake and all into the sea.  The Irish will also tell you that St. Patrick drove the snakes out of Ireland by beating on a drum.  Once he struck it too hard and made a hole in it, but an angel appeared an immediately mended it.
The sun refused to set for twelve days and nights after St. Patrick died, and stood perfectly still so as not to bring a new day without him.  Thousands of mourners came to his funeral from long distance.  So many torches and candles were carried that it is said everything was light a day.
St. Patrick's Day also has an agricultural significance. It is on this day that stock are turned out to pasture for the summer.  There is an old Irish saying, "St. Patrick turns the warm side of the stone uppermost," and potatoes are planted on that day.

Shamrock

St. Patrick used the shamrock to illustrate "Trinity in Unity".  He told his followers that the three leaves of the shamrock represent the three members of the Trinity; that the stem was the symbol of the Godhead and of the "three in one".
In homeage, after Patrick's death, his converts wore a shamrock as a religious symbol on his feast day.

St. Patrick's Day Parade

It has become a good old American custom to wear a bit of green on March, 17.  The first public celebration of St. Patrick's Day in America was in 1737, sponsored by the Charitable Irish Society of Boston.  Oddly enough, the society was a Protestant organization, founded that year to assist ill, homeless, and unemployed Irishmen.  Today, all over the US, the day is one of rejoicing and merrymaking, especially in the cities with a large Irish population (New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and Atlanta) where the streets take on green haze in honor of Ireland's beloved saint and the traditional St. Patrick's Day Parade.  The Irish are known for high spirits and deep feeling, and the parade is a joyful occasion nobody wants to miss.  People love watching the parade, not only because it is gay and colorgul, but the Irish perform many "hi-jinks" along the way to amuse the crowd.  The women wear something green or dress in native costume, and the men carry all sorts of Irish banners.  The greatest feature of the parade, of course, is the rhythmic music played by dozens of bands interspersed among the marchers.  In Florida there is a town named "Shamrock", and fanciful Irishmen like to send letters there to be remailed with the Shamrock postmark.
In Ireland, St. Patrick's Day is on the sedate side; loyal sons of Erin may mark the day by singing of the shamrock and downing another pint for Brian Boru, but they also fill the churches and cathedrals, paying homage to the saint whose blessed day it is.
One feature of the parade that annoys an Irish Citizen is the prominence of green everywhere.  Ireland's flag is banner made of three rectangles of equal size--green, white and orange.  Green representing South Ireland, the Catholic State; Orange representing North Ireland, the Protestant State; and the White, peace between the two States. In a St. Patrick's Parade, costumes worn by the marchers often include gold and blue colors, in adiition to green.  The gold represent Ireland's sun and the blue its many lakes.

Irish Shenanigans

Hostesses planning a St. Patrick's party should keep in mind that the Irish are a carefree, happy-go-lucky race.  Serious games should be banned and foolish, hilarious, merrymaking ones be the order of the day.  Games involving Irish titles such as Kissing the Blarney Stone, Irish Sweepstakes, Bogs of Ireland, etc., are easy to improvise by adding a few props and applying basic rules of other familiar games.  Limericks are fun and not hard to write.  Naturally activities from Ireland includes tales peopled with fairies and leprechauns of the Emerald Isle.