Happy St Patrick's Day.
Remember as a kid you had to make sure you wore something green on St Patrick's Day?
If you didn't, you'd get pinched. Does anybody know what that was about?
Originally the color associated with Saint Patrick was blue, not, in fact, green. However over the years the color green and its association with Saint Patrick's day grew. Green ribbons and shamrocks were worn in celebration of St Patrick's Day as early as the 17th century. He is said to have used the shamrock, a three-leaved plant, to explain the Holy Trinity to the pre-Christian Irish, and the wearing and display of shamrocks and shamrock-inspired designs have become a ubiquitous feature of the day. Then in 1798 in hopes of making a political statement Irish soldiers wore full green uniforms on 17 March in hopes of catching attention with their unusual fashion gimmick. The phrase "the wearing of the green", meaning to wear a shamrock on one's clothing, derives from the song of the same name.
(Information from Wikipedia)
2 comments:
what a great little history lesson! thanks for sharing!
I always protested St. Patty's day by wearing Orange! I'm not Irish--not one bit--and it always seemed I was the only one who was. I later discovered that Catholics wear green and Protestants wear oranges, so I was correct in my color choice anyway!
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