Linda Broday here. Hey, are you wearing green? Do you know why you’re supposed to? I grew up totally ignorant of the reason. I just knew I didn’t want to be pinched by the boys at school. I did know the holiday originated in Ireland and the Irish immigrants brought it to America but little else.
How about you?
Here’s the scoop. We celebrate to honor Ireland’s patron saint, St. Patrick who brought Christianity to Ireland in the 5th century.
But back up a minute. Patrick was abducted at the age of sixteen and brought to the Emerald Isle as a slave. He escaped and later returned to convert the Irish to Christianity. He used the three leaves of a shamrock, which grows wild in Ireland, to represent the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost with the stem uniting all three.
That’s something I did not know.
But the Irish got on board with him and turned from paganism, which was a good thing.
Still, why is green worn?
Seems the custom is due to political origins that go back to the Great Irish Rebellion in 1641.This uprising was due to the Catholic leaders opposing the English crown and they adopted a green flag with a harp on it. Green also reappeared during the Irish Rebellion of 1798.
Yet, I wondered why it’s customary to pinch someone failing to wear green. The answer is folklore. Green is supposed to make you invisible to leprechauns. They can see those wearing different colors so the mischievous little things pinch them. It’s a lighthearted belief to inspire us to wear green. Boys especially love to pinch.
Today, St. Patrick’s Day has evolved into a global celebration. There are parades and other festivities meant to highlight Irish culture and nurture community spirit and pride. And to eliminate discrimination, which is always a good thing.
We celebrate with green beer, various clothing and hats, and the Chicago River is dyed green, among other ways we celebrate.
But in Ireland, it’s still a religious holiday and continue to pay tribute to St. Patrick. By the way, he established many, many monasteries, churches, and schools before he died on March 17, 461.
In all my 50+ published books, I’ve never written any around St. Patrick’s Day. Maybe I should remedy that. Who knows what will inspire me?
Do you do anything to celebrate? Maybe eat the traditional meal of corned beef and cabbage or wear green? I’ll give away a $10 Amazon gift card in a drawing from the commenters.
manufacturing family who was responsible for sales at a crucial point in his company’s history. He had recently improved its chocolate-making process by extracting pure cocoa butter from whole beans, thus producing a more palatable drinking chocolate than most Britons had ever tasted. This resulted in an overabundance of cocoa butter which he called “eating chocolate.” Quickly, Cadbury recognized a great marketing opportunity for the new chocolates and began selling them in beautifully decorated boxes that he designed.
From that point, it was a quick jump to taking the familiar images of cupids and roses and putting them on heart-shaped boxes. While Cadbury didn’t actually patent the heart-shaped box, it is widely believed that he was the first to produce one. His boxes had a dual purpose. When the chocolates had all been eaten, the pretty boxes could be used to store mementos, from locks of hair to love letters. The boxes grew increasingly elaborate until the outbreak of World War II when sugar was rationed, and Valentine’s Day celebrations were scaled back. But Victorian-era Cadbury boxes still exist, and many are treasured family heirlooms or valuable items prized by collectors.
the United States by Esther Howland, also a resident of Boston at the time), Daniel wondered if it would be possible to print sentimental messages on candy. In 1866, he figured out a way to print words on candy with vegetable dye during the cutting process.
First introduced in 1907, it is not known exactly how the kisses got their name. But one theory suggests they were named for the kissing sound the chocolate made while being deposited on the manufacturing line. It wasn’t until 1962 that Hershey Kisses were first wrapped in red and green foil to celebrate Christmas. Today, to celebrate Valentine’s Day, kisses are wrapped in red foil.
the unfortunate victim of Grady Walsh’s mischievous deeds in school.