Hello, Steemians!
I think this is a fitting topic for today.
What did you do today? What are you doing tonight? Are you going to party? Are you going to drink and celebrate your Irish pride? Did you have corned beef and cabbage for dinner? Or maybe you're not Irish. Did you celebrate anyway?
Do we know why we do these things? Is it just an excuse to have work off for the day?
Saint Patrick's Day probably doesn't mean what you think it means.
The "official" definition of Saint Patrick's Day is:
Saint Patrick's Day, or the Feast of Saint Patrick, is a cultural and religious celebration held on 17 March, the traditional death date of Saint Patrick, the foremost patron saint of Ireland.
Firstly, I know Wikipedia isn't a credible source. It's the source Google uses for "official" definitions though.
Do we know who Saint Patrick was? Why do we celebrate him?
Before I get too far into this I just want to say that I am not intending to offend anyone. It matters not to me if you are religious or not, this is only meant to expand your knowledge and give you a different point of view than we are traditionally told.
A quick Google search for "why we celebrate St. Patrick's day" brings up all sorts of results, most of which are telling the same exact story: that it's a celebration for Irish culture, honoring one of Ireland's patron Saints.
But that's not the whole story.
The "snakes" that Saint Patrick "drove out of Ireland"? They weren't snakes at all. They were pagans. They were Celts, the people who had been living in Ireland and practicing their own ways for hundreds of years.
The snake is a symbol for Pagans. Pagans are referred to as anyone who practices anything other than the main world religions (Judaism, Christianity, Islam, etc.) Paganism is polytheistic meaning more than one god is "worshipped" (very much like how the Greeks and Romans have several gods). A lot of the time, Pagans respect and look to nature as their religion. Their belief system is generally peaceful, and there aren't very many cases (if any) of Pagans who forcefully convert people to their "religion". Because Paganism isn't really a religion at all, they just sort of believe in what they want and do their own thing.
Really, Saint Patrick's day is the celebration of the spread of Christianity throughout Ireland. It's a celebration of a religion, not the Irish culture as a whole. It's a celebration of driving the Pagans (snakes) out of Ireland forcefully to make it a Christian country. It's also essentially the celebration of the mass-genocide of the Pagans and Celts, the ones who didn't want to leave their home simply because someone else showed up and told them their belief system was wrong. If you want to read more about this, here is a good place to start, though I always encourage you to do your own research.
Does this sound like something you want to celebrate? Is this what makes you "proud to be Irish?"
Wellllll, maybe not so much. But that doesn't mean you need to feel guilty over it either. I don't think the mass-genocide of any culture should be celebrated, for any reason. I'd hope you agree. We should all be able to look at our ancestry and our culture, learn about it, and appreciate it for what it is. It doesn't mean we all have to agree with what happened. If you are Irish, there is probably a good chance you are also descended from the Celts and Pagans who got driven out of Ireland, so it goes both ways.
We can still be "Proud To Be Irish" without blindly celebrating a holiday which promotes the genocide of an entire culture. We can honor our ancestors by learning the real story about what really happened.
I have a large percentage of Irish in my ancestry, along with Norse, Scottish, English, French, and all sorts of other European cultures. I think it's awesome. I am a little bit obsessed with learning about history, and my ancestors and different ancient countries and cultures and castles. That all intrigues me! I love love love learning about all of these different cultures of which are part of my ancestry- the Vikings, the Celts, the Scots- all of them!
It might also partly be where part of my obsession with historical fantasy tv shows such as Vikings, Reign, Versailles, and Game of Thrones comes from. (What? Don't pick on me. Game of Thrones is based on history, too, you know. Plus, dragons! 🐉)
Anyway, I hope I have at least give you a different perspective on this "holiday" and maybe even your ancestry too. I think it's important for us to learn about where "we come from" and all of the different cultures that we are made of.
And for right now, I will leave you with this little Irish blessing that I love!
What do you think? What are your thoughts, Steemians? Until next time!
For more feel free to check out my website!
Also, I am working on launching my own web design business. As a student building my portfolio I can give you a really great deal on a website. If you or anyone you know needs a website feel free to contact me! Will accept payments in STEEM :)
Until next time,
~Zoey
