Mommy Why Am I Wearing Green?
I honestly don’t remember if I ever had St. Patrick’s day actually explained to me as a child. I do recall an episode of the Simpsons when Groundskeeper Willy was chasing all the snakes off of the playground alluding to St. Patrick. That does ring a bell. That must have been where I learned about it. Or, I’m positive we must have learned about it in school. Somehow I just grew up knowing that on March 17th I wear green.
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Morgan is still too young to understand fully what I share with her but I wanted to make sure that I did my research so that I can pass on to her the stories and traditions of the many holidays that we celebrate here in America.
We are not of Irish decent. I was actually born in Romania, my family came to the US during the downfall of Communism. Austin has a German and Scandinavian heritage. Morgan is a first generation baby born in the US (from my side that is). Although many people in the US are not of Irish decent they do celebrate St. Patrick’s day as a jovial and fun spirited day.
I absolutely love traditions and customs so I set out to learn as much as I could about St. Patrick’s day. Here are the top 7 things that I have learned about the spirit of St. Patrick’s day that I will use to explain it to my little Morgan.
- St. Patrick was born in 385 AD and died on March 17, 460 AD. We celebrate St. Patrick’s day on March 17th as a remembrance of his life and death.
- St. Patrick was born in Banwen a small village in the Neath Port Talbot county borough in Wales. He was not of Irish decent.
- St. Patrick was a Christian missionary credited with converting Ireland to Christianity in 400 AD, he thus became the patron saint of Ireland.
- Shamrocks have long been a symbol of St Patrick’s day, legend says that St. Patrick used the shamrock to explain the Holy Trinity to the Irish people. The Holy Trinity is the concept of Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit: three separate entities forming one God.
- St. Patrick was known for ridding Ireland of snakes. However, snakes have never been indigenous to Ireland, due to the cold water that surround the island. Many have speculated that St. Patrick actually drove out the pagans, and therefore, the word “snakes” was symbolic.
- Ireland’s national color is green thus people wear green on St. Patrick’s day as a symbolic gesture.
- Leprechauns are also something you see quite often associated with St. Patrick’s day. They are a part of old Irish legend. Irish legends states that if you spot a leprechaun, he will have to tell you where his pot of gold can be found.
I feel so much better knowing the history of St. Patrick’s day. I am so very glad that I will be able to celebrate it with Morgan. As a special treat I bought her the cutest Lucky Leprechaun Doll
How will you celebrate St. Patrick’s day?
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I loved reading the history behind St. Patrick’s day!! Thanks for sharing with us! I hope you had a happy and fun St. Patrick’s Day 🙂
Thanks so much I am so happy that people liked it so much!
Great tidbits. I love learning about other cultures.
me too! Thanks for reading
I’m all grown up and I don’t know the history. I guess I’m the toddler you just explained to. Lol. I’m from Nigeria, It’s not a popular holiday. NIce read.
hahhah! I don’t remember learning about it either, glad that I was able to help so many people learn about it
It’s funny how we can celebrate something but not even know the background to it. Thank you for sharing, especially the St. Patty’s day facts!
totally agree! someone suggested I do this with all the holidays. I totally just might I learned so much!
Hey, I am from India. Did not know history. Thanks for sharing.
That’s awesome, thanks for reading!
So informative- thanks for sharing
Thanks for reading!
Very cool…happy st. patty’s day! You are so right though, we all just know to wear green. Hahaha.😅 I had mo ifea of the history.
yea its not like other holidays were we get an entire backstory for instance like Christmas or Easter
Thank you so much for sharing this! I had no idea about all of these St. Patrick’s Days facts. Your little one is lucky to be growing up with a momma who is going to explain holidays to her!
awww thank you, I think it will be fun for her. She wore green today head to toe
Wow! I actually had no idea about this. Thanks for sharing all the history. I will be in Venice beach, Florida on st pattys day!
fun! I bet they do something awesome on St. Patrick’s day. Thanks for reading
I just learned that St. Patrick wasn’t Irish. Who knew? We’re making green cupcakes!
I know right, we all just assume hes Irish, green cupcakes that’s super fun!
Thank you for the lesson! I didn’t realize St. Patrick was from Whales. I will use your article to help teach my kids too!
yay that’s awesome!
Great blog post, Thanks for sharing this!
Thank you so much for reading!
Enjoyed reading about the history of St Patty day, I didn’t realize it was the day he died. Thanks for sharing!
Me either until I researched it, there were so many things I had no clue about especially the Shamrock and the holy trinity