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While I was serving corned beef and cabbage on St. Patrick’s Day I was wondering just who St. Patrick was and why exactly there is a holiday in his behalf. I do have some Irish in my blood but I have never really known why St. Patrick’s Day is celebrated I figured it’s time to get down to my Irish roots and discover the mystery myself.
So I did a little digging and found that it wasn’t quiet as easy as I thought it would be to unveil the identity of St. Patrick.
St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland, is one of Christianity's most widely known figures. But for all his celebrity, his life remains somewhat of a mystery. Many of the stories traditionally associated with St. Patrick, including the famous account of his banishing all the snakes from Ireland, are false, the products of hundreds of years of exaggerated storytelling. It is known that St. Patrick was born in Britain to wealthy parents near the end of the fourth century. He is believed to have died on March 17, around 460 A.D. At the age of sixteen, Patrick was taken prisoner by a group of Irish raiders who were attacking his family's estate. They transported him to Ireland where he spent six years in captivity. During this time, he worked as a shepherd, outdoors and away from people. Lonely and afraid, he turned to his religion for solace, becoming a devout Christian. After more than six years as a prisoner, Patrick escaped. According to his writing, a voice-which he believed to be God's-spoke to him in a dream, telling him it was time to leave Ireland. After escaping to Britain, Patrick reported that he experienced a second revelation-an angel in a dream tells him to return to Ireland as a missionary. Familiar with the Irish language and culture, Patrick chose to incorporate traditional ritual into his lessons of Christianity instead of attempting to eradicate native Irish beliefs. For instance, he used bonfires to celebrate Easter since the Irish were used to honoring their gods with fire. He also superimposed a sun, a powerful Irish symbol, onto the Christian cross to create what is now called a Celtic cross, so that veneration of the symbol would seem more natural to the Irish. The Irish culture centered around a rich tradition of oral legend and myth. When this is considered, it is no surprise that the story of Patrick's life became exaggerated over the centuries-spinning exciting tales to remember history.
While on the search I also found out some interesting facts about St. Patrick’s Day;
• The first St. Patrick's Day parade took place in the United States. Irish soldiers serving in the English military marched through New York City on March 17, 1762.
• The New York City St. Patrick's Day parade marches up 5th Avenue from 44th street to 86th street. In 2009 the parade will be on Tuesday, March 17, and will begin at 11 a.m.
• Over 100 St. Patrick's Day parades take place around the United States, but the parades in New York City and Boston are the largest.
• The New York St. Patrick's Day parade does not allow automobiles or floats, but over 150,000 marchers participate in the parade.
• There are 4 places in the United States named Shamrock, the floral emblem of Ireland. Mount Gay-Shamrock, W.Va., and Shamrock, TX, were the most populous, with 2,623 and 1,841 residents, respectively. Shamrock Lakes, Ind., had 162 residents and Shamrock, OK, 125. (Statistic for Mount Gay-Shamrock is from Census 2000; the other statistics in the paragraph are 2007 estimates.)
• There are 9 places in the United States that share the name of Ireland's capital, Dublin. Since Census 2000, Dublin, CA, has surpassed Dublin, OH, as the most populous of these places (39,328 compared with 34,964, respectively, as of July 1, 2005).
If you are still not into the spirit of St. Paddy's Day after stopping by one of the places named "Shamrock" or "Dublin", then you might consider paying a visit to Emerald Isle, NC, with 3,686 residents.

Posted by Rachel Fisher at 9:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

After the recent snow fall happened I was looking for any reason that would suggest that spring is right around the corner. Even though I know not to get my hopes up for an early spring I still like to think that there might be some chance. Well that got me to thinking about the ever popular Groundhog Day and just how the myth came to be. Groundhog Day is an annual holiday celebrated on February 2nd in the United States and Canada. According to the folklore, if a groundhog emerging from its burrow on this day fails to see its shadow, it will leave the burrow, signifying that winter will soon end. If on the other hand, the groundhog sees its shadow, the groundhog will supposedly retreat into its burrow, and winter will continue for six more weeks. The holiday began as a Pennsylvania German custom in southeastern and central Pennsylvania in the 18th and 19th centuries, its historical roots stretch back to ancient pagan midwinter celebrations and the medieval Christian feast of Candlemas. Modern customs of the holiday involve celebrations where early morning festivals are held to watch the groundhog emerging from its burrow. In southeastern Pennsylvania German dialect is the only language spoken at the celebration, and those who speak English pay a penalty usually in the form of a nickel, dime, or quarter, per word spoken. The largest celebration is held in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania where crowds reach as high as 40,000 people. There is also an alternative explanation of Groundhog Day that is maybe more logical. In western countries in the Northern Hemisphere the official first day of spring is about six weeks after Groundhog Day, on March 20 or March 21. About 1,000 years ago, before the adoption of the Gregorian calendar when the date of the equinox drifted in the Julian calendar, the spring equinox fell on March 16 instead. This was exactly six weeks after February 2. The custom could have been a folk embodiment of the confusion created by the collision of two calendrical systems. Some ancient traditions marked the change of season at cross-quarter days such as Imbolc when daylight first makes significant progress against the night. Other traditions held that spring did not begin until the length of daylight overtook night at the Vernal Equinox. So an arbiter, the groundhog/hedgehog, was incorporated as a yearly custom to settle the two traditions. Sometimes spring begins at Imbolc, and sometimes winter lasts 6 more weeks until the equinox. Proponents of Groundhog Day state that the forecasts are accurate 75 % to 90% of the time, but the National Climatic Data Center reportedly has stated that the predictions are only correct about 39% of the time. I think meteorologist Mike Randall puts this phenomenon into perspective: since there are always six more weeks of winter after Groundhog Day, and the concept of early spring in the astronomical sense simply does not exist, then whenever the groundhog sees its shadow and predicts six more weeks of winter, the groundhog is always right, but whenever it predicts an early spring, it is always wrong. The results have an approximate 80% rate of accuracy, the average percentage of times a groundhog sees its shadow. While I will not be putting my money on the rodent anytime soon, it still leaves a little glimmer of hope that maybe this will be the year that makes up that 39%.

Posted by Rachel Fisher at 11:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)