St. Patrick's Day ☘️ Misconceptions

Everything You Know About

🇮🇪  St. Patrick's Day ☘

😮 Is Wrong 😲

By Christine Dalton

Typically, we associate the holiday with drinking, drinking, and drinking. Oh, and being Irish.
But there's a lot more to St. Patrick's Day than most people know. Truthfully, you've probably been living a lie.
When you learn all the facts, this holiday actually kind of... sucks.

 
Sorry to burst your bubble...
But here are  Honest Facts

About St. Patrick's Day. 
 

St. Patrick wasn't Irish 😲

Historians believe he was born in what is now England, Scotland or Wales. 

St. Patrick's color is... Blue!

WE'VE BEEN LIVING A LIE. 
You might want to hold off on the green face paint this year.

St. Patrick's Day as we know it was invented.... in America!

Really?! Catholic University's Irish American expert, Timothy Meagher, explains that St. Patrick's Day celebrations began in the 18th century in American cities with large Irish immigrant populations. 
"It becomes a way to honor the saint but also to confirm ethnic identity and to create bonds of solidarity," Meagher explained. Really. 

March 17th is the day St. Patrick died.

 

So you're celebrating his death....   

 

St. Patrick didn't drive all the snakes from Ireland🐍

 

Probably because there's no evidence that snakes have EVER existed in Ireland. The climate is much too chilly for them.

🍀 The shamrock isn't the symbol of Ireland ☘

Sure, you can find shamrocks all over the Emerald Isle, but the real symbol is the harp.   

🍺 St. Patrick's Day used to be a dry holiday 🍺

Today's booze-bags look to the holiday as a great excuse to start drinking Guinness at 9 AM. Until 1970, however, all pubs in Ireland were closed in observance of the religious feast day.

Corned beef and cabbage isn't a traditional Irish dish.

 

It's just about as Irish as spaghetti and meatballs. You're better off sticking to Guinness.   

🇺🇸 There are more Irish people living in the U.S. than Ireland  🇮🇪

The population of Ireland is about 4.2. million. In contrast, there are around 34 MILLION people of Irish descent living in America.  1  Your odds of finding a four-leaf clover are slim to none. 

1 in 10,000 to be exact. Ouch.

But let's end on a happy note.
At least these two guys are Irish.

Happy St. Patrick's Day, Everyone!!

☘   ☘  ☘  🇮🇪     🍀🐍     ☘   🍺   ☘   🍻

St. Gertrude’s Day 🐈 Patron Saint of Cats 😸 March 17

😽  St Gertrude’s Day 🐈

Commemorating the Patron Saint of Cats

Forget Patrick !!

March 17 is also St Gertrude’s Day

Author:  Miles Pattenden

Commemorating the Patron Saint of Cats

March 16, 2022 😻 Author  Miles Pattenden

Senior Research Fellow, Institute for Religion and Critical Inquiry, Australian Catholic University
These days many celebrate St Patrick’s Day, even if they’re not Irish.
Happily, the Catholic Church has a range of options for every day of its liturgical calendar so there’s an alternative celebration today for those who would forsake their Guinness, day drinking, and neon-green shamrocks.

Gertrude of Nivelles, daughter of Pippin the Elder, power behind the Merovingian throne, was both Patrick’s near contemporary and his pioneering equal.
Born around 628, she died on this day in 659 but in that short life had time to found a monastery and rule as its abbess. Her remarkable story provides as valuable record of events during a dark time deep in the European past as that of Olga of Kyiv.

And her abbey still stands today, having survived attack by the forces of Revolutionary France in 1794 and bombing by the German Luftwaffe in 1940.

Gertrude’s posthumous legacy also reveals something quirky about the Catholic Church: its unquenchable enthusiasm for having a saint for everything.

Yes, Gertrude is now an unofficial patron saint for cats.

A Princess Bride
Gertrude was born into what was to become the most illustrious dynasty of early medieval Europe. Her father was Mayor of the Palace of Austrasia (no, that’s not a typo). The mayor was the highest ranking official in the service of the Frankish King Dagobert. But the mayors soon usurped the kings to take the throne for themselves.
Gertrude’s great-great-great-nephew was Charlemagne, who became the first Holy Roman Emperor on Christmas Day 800.

Gertrude was only a minor player in this game of thrones, but her anonymous biographer tells us that as a 10-year-old girl she refused King Dagobert’s offer to find her a nice duke to marry. Indeed, she “lost her temper and flatly rejected him with an oath, saying that she would have… no any earthly spouse but Christ the Lord”.
Normally, such medieval powerbrokers took no notice of a child’s wishes when they had political alliances to arrange. But Gertrude struck it lucky or miraculous. King Dagobert died the following year with her own father following just months later.
The 640s were a perilous time to be a teenage girl or a widowed wife, but Gertrude and her mother Itta, liberated, managed to chart their own course in life.

Gertrude’s biographer tells us that Itta shaved her daughter’s hair, so that violent abductors could not tear her away by force. What was left behind looked suspiciously like a tonsure - the outward sign that pious men were already using to show their devotion to a celibate religious life.
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And so, in due course, Gertrude and her mother established their monastery. After Itta died in 652 Gertrude became the sisters’ unchallenged abbess. She “obtained through her envoy’s men of good reputation, relics of saints and holy books from Rome, and from regions across the sea, experienced men for the teaching of the divine law and to practice the chants for herself and her people.”
😻
She welcomed foreigners, lay or religious, in particular monks from Ireland whose flourishing communities represented the ongoing fruits of Patrick’s recent efforts.

From Nuns to Cats
Gertrude’s path to feline favor has been a circuitous one. In truth, little in the medieval version of her legend justifies it. Rather the association itself speaks to a particular pathology in certain forms of Christianity.
Catholics, Anglicans, and Eastern Orthodox all recognize patron saints: special figures among the avowedly blessed whom, by choice or by venerable tradition, particular groups have taken on as their primary intercessor with God.
The idea for such patron saints first emerged in the Middle Ages when certain saints became particularly associated with places where they lived (like Patrick in Ireland) or where they were said to work their miracles (like Thomas à Becket at Canterbury). Some saints were also recognized for particular efficacy when interceding to cure particular conditions.
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Gertrude seems to have acquired a reputation of this latter kind after the time of the Black Death. In the Low Countries and Western Germany, she was said to protect against rats and the diseases they brought with them.

From there it was only a short leap to making her patron of the creatures that 15th-century folk used to keep those rats in check. 

Detail of a 15th-century wall painting with scenes from the life and legend of Saint Gertrude of Nivelles in a chapel of the south aisle in Kruisherenkerk, Maastricht, the Netherlands. 
Her elevation to celestial guardian of the mousers speaks to a curious development in which popes themselves have encouraged the idea that there ought to be a saint for everything.
😽
Pope Pius XII making Clare of Assisi patron saint of television in 1958 could be said to have been the unlikely event which sparked all that off.

Saints come in all shapes and sizes
Gertrude is by no means the Middle Ages’ strangest or most obscure saint. That honour surely still goes to St Guinefort, the “Holy Greyhound” - an actual dog - who gave his life to save a baby boy from a snake and whose local veneration in 13th-century France scandalised Church leaders in Paris and Rome.

Contemporary illustration of Saint Guinefort, a greyhound sainted by people in the Dombes region of France around the 13th century. L. Bower/ Wikimedia Commons

Yet Gertrude’s example underlines the sheer quantity and variety of those whom Catholics claim to have reached Heaven.
There’s a medieval saint out there for everything and everyone: so why not go and find yours?
🐈 
https://theconversation.com/forget-patrick-march-17-is-also-st-gertrudes-day-commemorating-the-patron-saint-of-cats-177550

🐈 

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gertrude_of_Nivelles

🐾😺😹😼🙀😸😻😽🐾

Saint Gertrude of Nivelles Day timeline

😽 656 A.D.  The Resignation as Abbess - Gertrude resigns from the position of the abbess and appoints her niece Wulfetrud as the new abbess.  
😽 663 – 670   The Book ‘Vita Sanctae Geretrudis’  - The book “Vita Sanctae Gertrudis” — which tells the story of St. Gertrude of Nivelles — is written by an unknown author.
😽 1677 The Canonization Into Sainthood - Pope Clement XII canonizes St. Gertrude of Nivelles.
😽 1980s  The Patron Saint of Cats - People start associating St. Gertrude with cats and they label her the Patron Saint of Cats.

Veneration
Gertrude is the patron saint of the City of Nivelles. The towns of Geertruidenberg, Breda, and Bergen-op-Zoom in North Brabant, also are under her patronage. Gertrude was also the patron saint of the Order of the Holy Cross (Crosiers or Crutched Friars). In the Crosier Church in Maastricht, the Netherlands, a large mural from the 16th century depicts eight scenes from her life and legend.

The legend of Gertrude's vision of the ocean voyage led her to be as well the patron saint of travelers. In memory of this event, medieval travelers drank a so-called "Sinte Geerts Minne" or "Gertrudenminne" before setting out on their journey. Her attention to the care of her garden led her assistance to be invoked by gardeners, and also against rats and mental illness.
😻 
Patronage    
Geertruidenberg; gardeners; pilgrims; poor people; widows; cats; against rats, mice and pestilence

    

St. Patrick's Day 💚Around the World 🌍🌎🌏

Saint Patrick's Day or the Feast of Saint Patrick (Irish: Lá Fhéile Pádraig, "the Day of the Festival of Patrick") is a cultural and religious holiday celebrated on 17 March.
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It is named after Saint Patrick (c. AD 385–461), the most commonly recognized of the patron saints of Ireland.
Saint Patrick's Day was made an official Christian feast day in the early seventeenth century and is observed by the Catholic Church, the Anglican Communion (especially the Church of Ireland),  the Eastern Orthodox Church and Lutheran Church.
The day commemorates Saint Patrick and the arrival of Christianity in Ireland,  as well as Irish heritage and culture in general. The day generally involves public parades and festivals, céilithe, and wearing of green attire or shamrocks. 
Christians also attend church services and the Lenten restrictions on eating and drinking alcohol are lifted for the day.

Saint Patrick's Day is a public holiday in the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland, Newfoundland and Labrador and Montserrat.
It is also widely celebrated by the Irish diaspora around the world; especially in Britain, Canada, the United States, Argentina, Australia and New Zealand.

🌍🌎🌏

United States
St. Patrick's Day, although not a legal holiday anywhere in the United States, is nonetheless widely recognised and celebrated throughout the country. It is primarily observed as a celebration of Irish and Irish American culture; celebrations include prominent displays of the colour green, feasting, copious consumption of alcohol, religious observances, and numerous parades. The holiday has been celebrated on the North American continent since the late eighteenth century.

The Chicago River  

is annually dyed green on St. Patricks Day

Argentina
In Argentina, and especially in Buenos Aires, all-night parties are celebrated in designated streets, since the weather is comfortably warm in March. People dance and drink only beer throughout the night, until seven or eight in the morning, and many people wear something green. In Buenos Aires, the party is held in the downtown street of Reconquista, where there are several Irish pubs;  in 2006, there were 50,000 people in this street and the pubs nearby.  Neither the Catholic Church nor the Irish community, the fifth largest in the world outside Ireland, take part in the organisation of the parties.

Canada
One of the longest-running Saint Patrick's Day parades in North America occurs each year in Montreal, whose city flag includes a shamrock in its lower-right quadrant. The parades have been held continually since 1824.
In Manitoba, the Irish Association of Manitoba runs an annual three-day festival of music and culture based around St. Patrick's Day.
In Quebec City, there was a parade from 1837 to 1926. 
The Toronto Maple Leafs hockey team was known as the Toronto St. Patricks from 1919 to 1927, and wore green jerseys.

Great Britain
In Great Britain,  The Royals used to present bowls of shamrock flown over from Ireland to members of the Irish Guards, a regiment in the British Army consisting primarily of soldiers from both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. The Irish Guards still wear shamrock on this day, flown in from Ireland.
Christian denominations in Great Britain observing his feast day include The Church of England and the Roman Catholic Church. 

Liverpool has the highest proportion of residents with Irish ancestry of any English city.  This has led to a long-standing celebration on St Patrick's Day in terms of music, cultural events and the parade.
Manchester hosts a two-week Irish festival in the weeks prior to St Patrick's Day. The festival includes an Irish Market based at the city's town hall which flies the Irish tricolour opposite the Union Flag, a large parade as well as a large number of cultural and learning events throughout the two-week period.
The Scottish town of Coatbridge, where the majority of the town's population are of Irish descent, also has a St. Patrick's Day Festival which includes celebrations and parades in the town centre.

Glasgow has a considerably large Irish population; due, for the most part, to the Irish immigration during the 19th century. This immigration was the main cause in raising the population of Glasgow by over 100,000 people. Due to this large Irish population, there is a considerable Irish presence in Glasgow with many Irish theme pubs and Irish interest groups who run annual celebrations on St Patrick's day in Glasgow. Glasgow began an annual Saint Patrick's Day parade and festival in 2007.

Japan
Saint Patrick's Parades are now held in nine locations across Japan. The first parade, in Tokyo, was organised by The Irish Network Japan (INJ) in 1992. Nowadays parades and other events related to Saint Patrick's Day spread across almost the entire month of March.

Montserrat
The tiny island of Montserrat, known as "Emerald Island of the Caribbean" because of its founding by Irish refugees from Saint Kitts and Nevis, is the only place in the world apart from Ireland and the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador where St Patrick's Day is a public holiday. The holiday also commemorates a failed slave uprising that occurred on 17 March 1768.

New Zealand and Australia
Saint Patrick's Day is widely celebrated in New Zealand and Australia – green items of clothing are traditionally worn and the streets are often filled with revellers drinking and making merry from early afternoon until late at night.
The Irish made a large impact on the social, political and education systems, of both countries. This is due to the large numbers of Irish people that emigrated to Australia, or were brought over as convicts during the 19th century. As such, Saint Patrick's Day is seen as a day to celebrate individual links to Ireland and Irish heritage.

Russia
First Saint Patrick's Day parade took place in Russia in 1992. There is an annual international festival "Saint Patrick's Day" in Moscow and other Russian cities since 1999. Moscow Parade usually is divided in two parts – official and unofficial. The first seems like a military parade and is performed in collaboration with Moscow government and Irish embassy in Moscow, and the second is made by volunteers and seems like a carnival and show with juggling, stilts, jolly-jumpers and Celtic music.

South Korea
The Irish Association of Korea has celebrated Saint Patrick's Day since 1976 in Seoul (the capital city of South Korea). The place of parade and festival has been moved from Itaewon and Daehangno to Cheonggyecheon.

Switzerland
While Saint Patrick's Day in Switzerland is commonly celebrated on 17 March with festivities like those in neighbouring central European countries, it is not unusual for Swiss students to organise celebrations in their own living spaces on Saint Patrick's Eve. Most popular are usually those in Zurich's Kreis 4. Traditionally, guests also contribute with beverages and dress accordingly in green.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Patrick%27s_Day

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Locations around the world that go “green” for St. Paddy’s Day:

http://thechive.com/2012/03/16/locations-around-the-world-that-go-green-for-st-paddys-day-13-hq-photos/

 

Landmarks Go Green for St. Patrick's Day

http://www.weather.com/family-kids/countdown-spring/green-landmarks-stpatricks-day-20130312

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