Top O' the Morning to ya, my fellow lads and lassies!! 'Tis time for a wee bit o' celebration to commemorate St. Patrick's Day...the only saint to actually have a "holiday" that we here in the United States actually recognize with any zeal what-so-ever.
Having been told that my last name (Gillespie) is of Irish decent, coupled with my blind faith acceptance of that fact, I am a huge supporter and follower of this great holiday.
But what do we know about St. Patrick and his great holiday? Well, I did a little research and found some interesting things out.
1. St. Patrick is the patron saint and national apostle of Ireland. He was sold as a slave in his youth, but escaped and put his efforts into all things religion in order to help the Irish people.
2. That shamrock St. Patrick is holding? He used it to symbolise the Holy Trinity (The Father, The Son and the Holy Spirit), and how they are all seperate elements of the same entity.3. Green is associated with St Patrick's Day because it is the color of Spring, Ireland, and the shamrock.
4. After St. Patrick drove all the snakes out of Ireland, he waved his magic shamrock and millions of leprechauns sprouted and turned the entire country green...from the grass, to people's clothing, the rivers, and they even turned baby's poop green...a tradition that still lives on today!!
(Ok, so St. Patrick didn't run snakes out of Ireland, sprout Leprechauns or do anything else in the last statement...where's your
sense of humor people??)Anyway, regardless of what you believe, St. Patrick's day should be celebrated. Even if you aren't religious, it still symbolises the changing of the seasons...even if you aren't Irish is still gives you a reason to wear those hilarious "Kiss Me I'm Irish" buttons...and most importantly, St. Patrick's day give you an excuse to communicate with your fellow man, woman and child in a broken, poor Irish accent without being criticized too harshly.
Me Irish eyes are smiling', so in closing I would like to leave you with two things...
May the road rise up to meet you,
May the wind be ever at your back
May the sun shine warm upon your face
And the rain fall softly on your fields
And until we meet again,
May God hold you in the hollow of his hand
and secondly...
May those who love us,
love us;and those who don't love us,
may God turn their hearts;
and if He doesn't turn their hearts,
may he turn their ankles
so we'll know them by their limping.
4 comments:
uh, what about St. Valentine - who was a Roman priest. We celebrate valentine's day. uh, what about St. Nicholas, the Christian saint and bishop of Myra --- reportedly the origin of Santa Claus?
Uh, St Valentine, or the patron Saint of overcharging for flowers, doesn't warrant a mention. (Why do we kill flowers in order to look at them, anyway?) And, since it's MARCH, I felt it wasn't necessary to speak of St. Nicholas...Wait a minute, when did this post become about Saints anyway? I thought it was a St Patrick's Day post!!
when you said "the only saint to actually have a "holiday" that we here in the United States actually recognize with any zeal what-so-ever". I just wanted to point out some other Saints that cause us to zealously spend millions of dollars, thus sustaining this great economy of ours... or errr the Chinese economy??? ...... oh well, forget it.... it was just a thought - I liked your verses though! :-)
Thanks for the comments!! I do appriciate them. I guess since I don't celebrate Valentine's Day, I didn't consider it...sorry about the confusion!! And I consider Christmas more the celebration of the birth of Christ than anything St Nicholas related...but I definately get your point! It's really a shame that we have lost the true meaning of holidays, and now only see them as a time to spend money...so commercialized. Thanks for the comments!!
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