Throngs of green-clad St. Patrick’s Day revelers amassed along Pope Avenue Sunday afternoon for the 28th annual Hilton Head St. Patrick’s Day Parade. Parade organizers put the crowd at 20,000 strong, with it being the largest free event all year long.
The tradition of celebrating St. Patrick’s Day in American is long lived with the first taking place on March 17, 1762, when Irish soldiers serving in the English military marched through New York City, according to the history buffs at history.com
For those who missed out on Sunday’s festivities, here’s a few quick Irish-centric facts to be shared on Thursday, St. Patrick’s Day.
There’s more to it than green beads
Traditionally, this is a religious feast day and the anniversary of St. Patrick’s death in the 5th century. The Irish have observed this day as a religious holiday for more than a thousand years. On St. Patrick’s Day, which falls during the Christian season of Lent, Irish families would traditionally attend church in the morning and celebrate in the afternoon. Lenten prohibitions against the consumption of meat were waived and people would dance, drink and feast—on the traditional meal of Irish bacon and cabbage.
ERIN GO BRAGH
This is quite simply the Anglicization of a Gaelic term that roughly translates to “Ireland forever” or “long live Ireland.”
The shamrock is more than just a four-leaf clover or the little marshmellow found in your Lucky Charms cereal. The shamrock, which was also called the “seamroy” by the Celts, was a sacred plant in ancient Ireland because it symbolized the rebirth of spring. By the seventeenth century, the shamrock had become a symbol of emerging Irish nationalism. As the English began to seize Irish land and make laws against the use of the Irish language and the practice of Catholicism, many Irish began to wear the shamrock as a symbol of their pride in their heritage and their displeasure with English rule.
Thank Walt Disney for linking a “small-bodied fellow” to St. Patrick’s Day.
The original Irish name for these figures of folklore is “lobaircin,” meaning “small-bodied fellow.”
Belief in leprechauns probably stems from Celtic belief in fairies, tiny men and women who could use their magical powers to serve good or evil. In Celtic folktales, leprechauns were cranky souls, responsible for mending the shoes of the other fairies. Though only minor figures in Celtic folklore, leprechauns were known for their trickery, which they often used to protect their much-fabled treasure.
Leprechauns had nothing to do with St. Patrick or the celebration of St. Patrick’s Day, a Catholic holy day. In 1959, Walt Disney released a film called Darby O’Gill & the Little People, which introduced America to a very different sort of leprechaun than the cantankerous little man of Irish folklore. This cheerful, friendly leprechaun is a purely American invention, but has quickly evolved into an easily recognizable symbol of both St. Patrick’s Day and Ireland in general.