We're at one of those celebrations that started with a religious event/person that doesn't seem to be related to any religious event anymore.St. Patrick's Day. It has had more than 1000 years to evolve. And then it got imported to the U.S. by Irish immigrants and it went viral as a celebration of Irish culture.
What is Irish culture? It says parades, special food, music, dancing, drinking and a whole lot of green.
Food and green are part of this day: this is a green in every food dish day. I like the green popcorn pictures. But this is an American enjoyment. Supposedly the Irish have a long historical memory and green food relates to the Irish Potato Famine of the 1840s when mass starvation occurred. "People were so deprived of food that they resorted to eating grass," Kinealy tells The Salt. "In Irish folk memory, they talk about people's mouths being green as they died."
Let's find something more more innocent and fun. Wearing green. As the tradition goes, wearing green on St. Patrick's Day is supposed to make you invisible to leprechauns. They will pinch you as soon as you come upon their radar if you don't wear green!
In the dark history of Ireland, Green represents the Catholics who rebelled against protestant England. There was the green flag with a harp in the early 17th century. There was a Society of United Irishmen who wore green in the 1790s trying to bring republican ideas to Ireland having been inspired by the American and French revolutions. So wearing green has its dark history.
And the "lucky" part? Supposedly the "luck of the Irish" was an expression about the Irish having bad luck. It was originally an ironic expression. Dark abounds in Irish history..
And then our North American pot of Shamrocks is actually Oxalis. Very cute, very green.
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