With Saint Patrick’s Day around the corner, it is time to stack up on the green that you may have been missing during this (hopefully) passing winter! Whether the reason be religious, cultural, or festive, green is a great color to sport, & where else to check out but Scranberry Coop!

Did You Know? 10 Facts about St. Patrick’s Day (Courtesy of Wikipedia)

  • The color green is associated with Catholics in Ireland, while orange is the colour associated with Protestant Christians.
  • St Patrick is said to have used the shamrock, a three-leaved plant, to explain the Holy Trinity to the pagan Irish.
  • St. Patrick’s efforts against the druids as he was evangelizing in the northern half of Ireland were eventually turned into an allegory in which he drove “snakes” out of Ireland (Ireland never had any snakes).
  • The Lenten restrictions on eating and drinking alcohol are lifted for the day. Perhaps because of this, drinking alcohol – particularly Irish whiskey, beer, or cider – has become an integral part of the celebrations.
  • The St Patrick’s Day custom of “drowning the shamrock” or “wetting the shamrock” involves putting a shamrock into the bottom of a cup, filling it with whiskey, beer, or cider, toasting to St. Patrick, Ireland, or those present, & if the shamrock isn’t swallowed the shamrock is tossed over the shoulder for good luck.
  • Today’s St Patrick’s Day celebrations have been greatly influenced by those that developed among the Irish diaspora, especially in North America. Until the late 20th century, St Patrick’s Day was often a bigger celebration among the diaspora than it was in Ireland.
  • The colour green has been associated with Ireland since at least the 1640s, when the green harp flag was used by the Irish Catholic Confederation.
  • When the Order of St. Patrick—an Anglo-Irish chivalric order—was founded in 1783 it adopted blue as its colour, which led to blue being associated with St Patrick.
  • During the 1790s, green would become associated with Irish nationalism, due to its use by the United Irishmen, a republican organization—led mostly by Protestants but with many Catholic members—who launched a rebellion in 1798 against British rule.
  • The phrase “wearing of the green” comes from a song of the same name, which laments United Irishmen supporters being persecuted for wearing green.