Modern St. Patrick’s Day celebrations, at least in the United States, are likely to be marked by commercial lucky charms and green beer—all of which have little to do with the saint’s historical persona. As it turns out, the festival took centuries to develop the aspects that now appear to be essential to its celebrations.
The March 17 commemoration began in 1631, when the Church established a Feast Day to commemorate St. Patrick. He was Ireland’s Patron Saint and died about the fifth century, more than 12 centuries before the contemporary version of the feast was honored. However, Marion Casey, a clinical assistant professor of Irish Studies at New York University (and a regular marcher in Manhattan’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade), says that little is known about who he was.
“We know that he was a Roman citizen, because Britain was Roman then, and then he was enslaved and taken to Ireland, where he either escaped or was released,” Casey said. “And then he became a priest and went back to Ireland, where he had a lot of luck converting the Druid culture into Christians.”
According to legend, St. Patrick was born Maewyn Succat but changed his name to Patricius (or Patrick), derived from the Latin phrase for “father figure,” after becoming a priest. And his reputed luck is at the heart of all current St. Patrick’s Day themed products.
Many of today’s rituals didn’t really take off until the early 18th century. Because the celebration falls during Lent, it gives Christians a day free from the abstinence rules that lead up to Easter, and around the 1720s, the church realized it had “gotten kind of out of control,” Casey adds. The church originally associated a botanical item—customary for all saints—with St. Patrick, awarding him the symbol of the likewise lucky shamrock, in order to remind celebrants what the occasion truly represented.
Throughout the remainder of the 1700s, modern-day ceremonies and themes evolved. The first parade in New York City was held in 1762. According to Casey, the color green became formally associated with the day only in 1798, the year of the Irish Rebellion. Prior to the revolt, the color associated with St. Patrick was blue, which was used in both the royal court and on historic Irish flags. But, whereas the British wore red, the Irish picked green, and they sung the song “The Wearing of the Green” during the uprising, solidifying the color’s place in Irish history.
The green beer is an even later addition. In fact, it wasn’t until the late twentieth century that Ireland abolished a legislation that once required all businesses, including bars, to close for the day. Since then, thanks to a marketing campaign by Budweiser in the 1980s, drinking beer has become a popular way to celebrate, regardless of how closely it is related to the true meaning of St. Patrick himself.
