St. Patrick’s Day: Know What You are Celebrating

Posted on by Bob Hammitt

Happy Saint Patrick’s Day.  We celebrate not only St. Patrick today, but also our many Irish friends and neighbors.

Here are some things that many people don’t realize:

1. St. Patrick was born in Great Britain. He was captured and turned into a slave by the Irish. He became a Priest after he escaped.

2. Today is not his birthday, today is the anniversary of his death.

3. He liked his whiskey, and once chastised an innkeeper for not serving him enough.

4. He didn’t drive the snakes out of Ireland. There were never snakes in Ireland.

5. He wore more blue than green.

6. He gave the shamrock its significance because he used it to preach about the mystery of the trinity.

We should also have a better understanding of why America has so many Irish people in it.

Between 1845 and 1851, over a million people died in Ireland during the Potato famine.
 
Two million others left the country for a place that would give them a chance at life, freedom, and hope: America.  
 
They were crowded onto boats that allowed 18 inches per adult, half that for kids. They were called “Coffin Ships.”
 
When they arrived in America they were often the victims of brutal bigotry and harassment. They were called criminals and rapists. They were treated in a very non-Christian way by many who embrace the words, “One nation under God.”

81zpsmxk7xl-1-_sl1500_-e1511842870675
Photo Credit: Daily Beast

 
Today we celebrate their history, culture, toughness and spirit.
 
As we should.
 
The Irish have made this country a richer place.
 

Much like those who have arrived after them.

 

Follow the Unfinished Pyramid on twitter at: https://twitter.com/unfinishedpyr

 

Advertisement

One thought on “St. Patrick’s Day: Know What You are Celebrating”

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s

Published by Bob Hammitt

Follow the Unfinished Pyramid at Follow the Unfinished Pyramid at https://twitter.com/unfinishedpyr