Since St. Patrick’s Day is tomorrow it got me wondering…
1) why do we wear green on St. Patrick’s Day?
2) who developed the idea that it is OK to pinch people on this holiday?
So I did a little research…and I found some answers:
As you may know, St. Patrick was a dude who was born in Wales in 385 A.D. He spent over 30 years of his life converting people to Christianity. (And I thought St. Patrick’s Day was a day for drinking green beer???) In order to explain the Trinity, St. Patrick used a three leaf clover to show how three separate parts could be of one entity. He used the clover in his sermons to show how the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit could all exist as separate elements of the same entity. Brilliant! (Wish I would have read his idea before using the egg example numerous times in sharing my faith! This option is a lot less messy than breaking an egg.) Because of this way of sharing the faith his followers started wearing the shamrock. However, wearing green on the holiday is actually an American-made tradition.
Now for question #2… Pinching people who are not wearing green is an American tradition dating back to the 1700s. People used to think that if you wore green it made you invisible to the Leprechauns. This was a good thing because, legend says, leprechauns are obnoxious little fellows and love to pinch anyone they see. So the pinching tradition today is to warn and remind you about the Leprechauns.
Thanks to this knowledge I will forever more think of the trinity when I think of St. Patrick’s Day!
I was just thinking about those exact questions! Thanks for enlightening me–p.s. your blog is awesome! I read it on the reg =)
Thanks Alice! That is so sweet!