On this day of green, driving around and seeing people in pubs with rosy cheeks and shamrock beers in hand. I have a few questions, why is this a celebration? Where did it come from? What are leprechauns? And what is the history behind each thing? I did some research so that my readers and I will have some answers on some of these stories.

(the first bit looks into the religious aspect of it, but the fun non-biblical stories are farther down the page.)





The history of St. Patrick himself:

Who was he?

March 17th is St. Patricks day, but it also marks the day that St. Patrick aka Patricius (in his writings) had passed away. He was not Irish, and he did not start off as a devout Christian. When he was no more than the age is 16 he was taken away from his family and friends to Ireland where he was to work as a slave. In this story he claims that a voice came to him in his sleep, maybe it was angels or God. It helped him escape the clutches of his captures and brought him back to his loved ones. When he got back to safety and freedom he became a priest and lived the rest of his life as a missionary.





Why the tale of the snakes?

It is said that St. Patrick chased away the snakes of Ireland, there is no scientific proof that he chased anything away. Although if you look into the bible, there are many cases that the snake is a symbol and is referred to as the devil, sin, demons, and/or bad things. So maybe the story really means he chased away the devils of Ireland? I don't know, it's really left up to interpretation at that point.





Why the shamrock?

It's actually not really about the four-leaf clover. I think that that is in our culture of this celebration because of people associate St.Patty's day with luck. How difficult it is to find a four-leaf clover. Maybe that part of it represents the luck St. Patrick had when he escaped from his captors. But that is all my own theory.

The story of the three-leaf clover and the importance of it is that St. Patrick used the shamrock as a method of explaining the holy trinity. The father, son, and holy spirit.





Now to the less biblical stuff.





Leprechauns!

What are leprechauns?

They are fairies that are the sons of a wrongdoer fairy and evil spirits but they themselves are not evil or good. They are sort of stuck in the middle of good and bad. If you try to catch a leprechaun and are mean about it he will e mean to you back and will try to trick you so you don't get your hands on any of their gold. But if you somehow to befriend one, they can be very generous. It is also said that they, like genies, will grant you three wishes if they feel like it.

Another set of characteristics that they have is they love shoes and to make shoes. I think that they love shoes because they love to dance so much that they wear out their shoes so often they have no choice but to be expert shoemakers. They also love money, gold, anything shiny.

Back in old stories, they are said to be wearing red instead of green. They also can live underwater, I don't know about you but I just pictured a tiny red-haired bearded mermaid. Technically mermaids, in general, can be considered fairies of the sea, so it sort of ties together.



Where did they get their name?

There are a couple theories that make sense. First one is the Irish god of the sun and arts and crafts. When Christianity took over he was downgraded to just a character named Lugh-chromain. The second story is that leprechaun was actually supposed to be called "Leprechaun" which in Middle Irish means small corp meaning small body.



Where are they from? Where do they live?

Carlingford Mountain located in Ireland. There is a man by the name of Kevin Woods that had claimed to find the bones of a dead leprechaun. This prompted a tradition of leprechaun hunt that now 100 ceramic statues are hidden in the corridors of the mountain. People that take part in this competition also are allotted a bottle of whiskey to help them on their journey.

This mountain, however, is protected by European law so that if there are tiny little creatures they have a right to be there. As they were there hundreds of years before humans were. according to stories of course.

Another journalist wrote in a newspaper in Portland, Oregon about a colony of leprechauns that live in a small circular hole where a light post was meant to be. He added flowers and that it was the world's smallest park.



They could be mistaken for a different mythical creature?!

"Clurichan" - They are considered a close relative to the leprechauns. Basically, they are leprechauns that are drunk all the time that ride animals around. Once a leprechaun gets too drunk they change species entirely and are stuck that way.



A cute St. Patricks day craft for kids:

You can have a tradition of crafting little leprechaun traps using boxes, popsicle sticks, and shiny things. I just saw them on Pinterest and thought they were worth mentioning. It also goes with the lore of the Ireland God of the sun and arts and crafts. Have fun!



