St. Patrick's Day. Do you have any plans? Are you getting ready to drink green beer? Or better yet how about why we are here, THE DESSERTS!!! I love mint chocolate chip ice cream, and it seems to be everywhere around St. Patrick’s day, along with green chocolate chip cookies, or the Andes cake which is the chocolate cake with mint buttercream. OMG, TO DIE FOR! It’s breakfast time and I’m getting very hungry thinking about all this. So, St Patrick’s Day. Do you know where the celebration actually comes from? I took out some time to do a little research and found out the holiday started out as a Christian feast day, celebrating the life of St. Patrick, for spreading Christianity to Ireland. Well, it’ has definitely changed up a little bit, now it is a celebration of all things Irish, from 5k runs, painting the town green and local parades.
Since my great grandfather was Irish, I decided to find out what real deal is and here I am sharing with you. Did you know that St Patrick was a real person? Yes, indeed he was. He was born in Britan, part of the Roam empire at the time as Maewyn Succat. His family was Christian but Maewyn was an atheist throughout his childhood.
That would change at age 16 (around 400 A.D.) when Maewyn was kidnapped from his home on the west coast of Britain by Irish pirates. They proceeded to carry him off to Ireland and force him to work as a shepherd herding sheep. After six years, he escaped his captors, walking nearly 200 miles through the Irish landscape and convincing a ship to carry him with them back to Britain. This harrowing experience certainly had an effect on Maewyn, who was convinced it was the Lord who protected him and delivered him safely home.
Upon returning home, Maewyn received his call (in a dream) to preach the Gospel—in Ireland, of all places! He spent the next 15 or so years in a monastery in Britain, preparing for his missionary work. When he became a priest, his name was changed to Patricius, and he returned to the land of his captors to begin his teachings.
Now if that isn’t enough news for you, let’s talk about that shamrock. We wear a shamrock on St. Patrick’s Day because, legend says, St. Patrick used its three leaves to explain the Holy Trinity in his teachings. The Trinity is the Father, the Son, and the Spirit as three divine persons who are one divine being [God]. The truth of this St. Patrick legend, however, is in question, as there is no direct record that the saint actually used the shamrock as a teaching tool. I’m going to just believe this one.
Ok, now let me knock your socks off. The original color for St. Patrick’s day was blue. Who knew?
I have made a lot of leprechauns and pots of gold for St. Patrick's Day. I am now thinking about it with a different creative eye. My creative juices are flowing! I made some chocolate covered 3 leaf clovers. Check them out below and let me know what you think. I would love to hear your feedback on if you already knew this little tidbit of history, or was news to you like it was for me.
Comments