St. Patrick's Day, the luck of the
Irish, and customs that change meaning over time
Saint Patrick's Day parade in the Irish Channel neighborhood of New Orleans
Photo by Me
First I'd like to start of this post
with a disclaimer, please take what I write with a grain of salt! I
will never deliberately give you false information but I don't know
everything. As a matter of fact, a lot of what I will be writing is
personal observations and bits of stories I have heard about the
people and places I have visited and all of this as an outsider. I'll
try and list references and quotes with proper academic rigor but
I've been out of school for almost a year and I am quite lazy! So if
I say something you know to be false, ignorant, or stupid please feel
free to (kindly) let me know and I will remedy my egregious error.
END Disclaimer rant
As an anthropology major and generally
curious person, I often wonder about cultural traditions and customs
– where they come from, why do we celebrate them, and more
interestingly, how and why they change over time. I think the later
is particularly relevant in our increasingly global and
interconnected world. Ideas and behaviors become viral overnight and
whole cultures are commodified and sold in the ever expanding
tourist industry.
In honor of Saint Patrick's Day I
thought I'd reflect on the holiday and its meaning in different
contexts, with different people, in different places over time. In
order to understand the holiday and what it represents we need to
talk about one of my favorite catholic saints, St. Patrick.
As with all the early saints, much of
his history is shrouded in myth and mystery. Born in the late 4th
century (390 AD) in roman controlled Britain (likely in Wales) to a
catholic family whose father was likely a priest, St. Patrick was
kidnapped by a raiding Irish tribe as a child. Sold into slavery, he
prayed every day to god to be released from his bondage. Some six
years later he managed to escape on a ship bound for Wales. When he
got home he realized that even though he despised his captors, it
would become his life's mission to convert the Irish Celts to
Christianity.
Many stories abound in Ireland of St.
Patrick's successes and miracles in converting the Irish. Some are
quite fantastical and full of whimsy, others seem reasonably
believable. He is known for blessing more sacred wells and founding
more churches than any single person, saint or no, is capable of. In
fact, St. Patrick likely wasn't the only, and not even the first,
catholic missionary to Ireland. Part of the reason for his popularity
today has to with medieval Irish monastic politics. Back then
monasteries where powerful governmental and economic entities with
their validity, in part, resting on the sanctity of the monasteries
founding saint. A powerful monastery, Armagh I believe, claimed St.
Patrick as their own and venerated him above all others. The
hagiographers (monks who write the histories of saints) were
politically motivated to attribute more miracles and blessings to
Saint Patrick.
Now, a lot of us in the US don't know
much about Saint Patrick or why he is the patron saint of Ireland or
what a patron saint even is. Many of us are familiar with the story
where St. Patrick casts the serpents out of Ireland and that is why
there are no longer any snakes on the island. Some believe that the
serpents are supposed to represent the pagan Irish. This
interpretation particularly upsets Neo-pagans/Wiccans/ (and for a
lack of a better name) Neo-Celtics.
I have never actually read or heard of
that particular story but I don't doubt its existence or that the
serpents were supposed to be pagan peoples. Some of the Neo-pagan
faith believe that this story is representative of all the evil
colonizing behaviors of Christianity and vilify St. Patrick as the as
the destroyer of ancient ways. While that certainly is one
interpretation of it I feel it is a little harsh and oversimplified
version of the history of the Irish Celtic conversion to
Christianity.
Celtic Christianity as it is sometimes
referred to, or Irish Catholicism, was somewhat unique in the early
catholic church and was both revered and later vilified by the papacy
in Rome (but that's another story for another time) What is more
important for our discussion is how St. Patrick was known to be
somewhat pragmatic in his approach to evangelizing. For example,
natural wellsprings were sacred to the Celts, and rather then
destroying them or naming them evil, he merely blessed them and they
became christian symbols of blessing and healing. Many of these
ancient wells still exist in Ireland and are used in much the same
way as they have for thousands of years.
Another well known story of Saint
Patrick was his use of the clover to preach the gospel. He said the
shamrock was like the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, separate
parts of the one whole. That is why Ireland forever after has been
associated with green and the shamrock.
To be fair, many of the old Celtic
traditions died with Saint Patrick. The druids in particular were
rendered powerless. Christianity brought with it writing and with
writing there was less need for spoken traditions and the bards who
sung them. Celtic chieftains traded their traditions for the wealth
and governmental control that Christianity brought them. Many once
sacred Celtic sites became sacred catholic sites. Still, the relative
peaceful transition shouldn't be understated or Celtic Christianity's
unique and more nature-focused traditions.
(A statue of Saint Patrick at a church next to The Hill of Tara. A famous site that was sacred to the Celtic Irish, a good example of the Christian take over of sacred sites)
Photo by Aaron Shenewolf
I think I'll leave off here. And
continue this discussion with another post on St. Patrick and
Catholicism as a whole representing the nation of Ireland (and later
Irish- American St. Paddy's day celebration). I know this is a bit of
a long post and may be boring for those who aren't interested in
history or Ireland in particular. I promise most posts won't be as
long ( I couldn't keep this up!) Other posts will be of little
tidbits, or pictures, or whimsical moments, or travel tips. With
that, let me know what ya think! Feel free to post questions or
comments and I promise to follow up.
Stay Fabulous y'all
- Your Lone Wolf Traveler
Nearly forgot!
References...
- Catholic Ireland website https://www.catholicireland.net/saintoftheday/st-patrick-390-461-patron-of-ireland/
- Memory various books and documentaries I've watched on the history of Ireland >.< I'll look those up later and post them to next weeks blog I promise!
