Saint Patrick's Day : Customs & Traditions

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Customs & Traditions

Celebrated on March 17, 2008

Legend has it that Saint Patrick drove all the snakes out of Ireland and they all went into the sea and drowned. The snake was a revered pagan symbol, and perhaps this is a metaphor for the fact that he drove paganism out of Ireland. Whatever the truth of the matter, there are to this day no venemous snakes in Ireland.

The wearing of the Green : green is the colour associated with St. Patrick; leprechauns wear green, shamrocks are green, IRELAND is green, on account of all that rain.

Leprechauns are Irish fairies. They look like small, old men (about 2 feet tall), often dressed like a shoemaker,with a cocked hat and a leather apron. According to legend, leprechauns are unpleasant little characters, aloof and unfriendly, who live alone and pass the time making shoes. They also possess a hidden pot of gold, and treasure hunters can often track down a leprechaun by the sound of his shoemaker's hammer. If caught, he can be forced (with the threat of bodily violence) to reveal the whereabouts of his treasure, but the captor must keep their eyes on him every second. If the captor's eyes leave the leprechaun (and he often tricks them into looking away), he vanishes and all hopes of finding the treasure are lost forever.

Banshees are female spirits who prophesy a death : if you hear the wailing of the Banshee (they are never seen) beware - they could well be looking for YOU! (But of course we would then have an excuse for a good old, Irish-style wake - a wonderful send off and celebration of the life of the dear departed!)

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	St. Patrick's Breast Plate	Why Saint Patrick's Day?
	The Blarney Stone is a stone set in the wall of the Blarney Castle tower in the Irish village of Blarney. Kissing the stone is supposed to bring the kisser the gift of "the Blarney" - the ability to talk persuasively and eloquently. Blarney castle was built in 1446 by Cormac Laidhiv McCarthy (Lord of Muskerry) and its walls are 18 feet thick (necessary to thwart attacks by Cromwellians and William III's troops). Thousands of tourists a year still visit the castle. The origins of the Blarney Stone's magical properties aren't clear, but one legend says that an old woman cast a spell on the stone to reward a king who had saved her from drowning. Kissing the stone while under the spell gave the king the ability to speak sweetly and convincingly. The Blarney Stone is very difficult to reach: it lies between the main castle wall and the parapet. If you want to kiss the Blarney Stone - and thousands of tourists do - you have to lie on your back and bend backwards (and downwards), holding onto iron bars for support. Whether all the germs have anything to do with it is not known, but it's said of anyone who can "talk the hind leg off a donkey" that they must have kissed the Blarney Stone! Shamrock "originally chosen as the national emblem of Ireland because of the legend that St Patrick used the plant to illustrate the doctrine of the Trinity. Shamrocks have been considered by the Irish as good-luck symbols since earliest times, and this superstition has persisted in modern times among people of many nationalities. It is traditionally worn by celebrants on St Patrick’s Day, March 17 of each year."