Tomorrow is St. Patrick’s Day. Hopefully you have something green in your wardrobe so you will be fashionable during the annual event. You may even don a shamrock or down a green-colored drink while eating corned beef and cabbage. Rivers will be dyed green and bagpipers will lead parades through some of the largest cities in the United States. That is the thing about this holiday. The traditions we associate with St. Patrick’s Day festivities are more American than they are Irish.

St. Patrick is the patron saint of Ireland, as recognized by the Roman Catholic Church. He wasn’t born in Ireland, but in merry old England. When he was a teenager, he was kidnapped and taken as a slave to Ireland. While there, he learned the Celtic language and customs. He also became a Christian. When he had the chance, he fled Ireland and, eventually, became a Christian missionary. He felt called to go back to the land of his slavery and spread Christianity to the pagan Emerald Isle. He later became a bishop in Ireland. He died on March 17, 461. The Feast of St. Patrick was celebrated by Irish Catholics on the annual date of his death. This happened in the midst of Lent and was a one day reprieve from fasting.

The Feast of St. Patrick was a very modest holiday until it came to the shores of the United States. During the Colonial Days, homesick Irish soldiers serving under the Union Jack in New York City put on a parade on March 17, 1762. The playing of bagpipes and drums struck accord with many Irish immigrants in the city and they came out in droves to take part in the parade. St. Patrick’s Day parades stuck as a tradition. It wasn’t until the 20^th century before there was a parade in Dublin, Ireland, on St. Patrick’s Day.

What about corned beef and cabbage? Certainly that was around when St. Patrick was banishing snakes from the island, right? No. The food staple of choice in Ireland was pork bacon and potatoes. When Irish immigrants moved to the United States, they found that bacon was more expensive than corned beef. In large, east coast cities that drew a vast number of European immigrants like New York and Boston, ethnic groups lived side-by-side. Corned beef was a Jewish dish that was readily available at delis. Cabbage also was cheap and plentiful in the New World. It was easy to cook. So corned beef and cabbage became the meal of St. Paddy’s Day via Jerusalem and New York City!

Want to hear some other facts about the green day? The color associated with St. Patrick was actually blue, not green! In fact, St. Patrick blue is an actual color that the Knights of St. Patrick wore. Where did green come from? Perhaps from the revolutionary members that fought for Ireland’s independence in the 18^th Century and used green as a sign of solidarity.

What about shamrocks being lucky? Actually the shamrock does go back to Ireland and is associated with St. Patrick. However, luck has nothing to do with it. It is said that when St. Patrick was doing his missionary work among the Druids, he would pluck a three-leafed clover to illustrate the Trinity. Since the Druids worshiped deity in nature, the shamrock was a religious symbol to which they could relate.

It seems that most of the "traditional” trappings of St. Patrick’s Day have very little to do with the "traditional” St. Patrick. If you really want to celebrate the day in the historically correct tradition, fry some bacon and potatoes, wear blue clothing and stay out of the parade. Take a bouquet of clovers to church and pass them out to parishioners wishing them, not luck, but understanding of where they come from. Then you will be truly authentic to the saint to whom the day honors.