Saint Patrick's Day

Saint Patrick's Day

Celebrated on March 17, the popular Irish national holiday has become a happy pretext out and have fun whether you are in Dublin ... Or not! Thus, throughout the world, we celebrate this special Saint Patrick’s Day. The green color is honored in all major cities. Parades are organized and people spend time in pubs to toast friends.

However, we may wonder what is exactly the St Patrick? How far is it celebrated?

First of all, we’ll see who St Patrick and, after, how does the world participate to this celebration.

1. Who is Saint Patrick? What is the festival?

Around the world, the Irish pay tribute every March 17 to this evangelizer who brought Christianity to the island. Legend tells it's with a clover that St. Patrick would have explained the principle of the Holy Trinity the clover since became the national emblem of Ireland. It is a Catholic holiday but also Lutheran or Orthodox. Saint Patrick would otherwise have achieved the feat of chasing all the snakes from the island.

Contrary to what one might imagine, St. Patrick is not the Irish national holiday. Since 1903, St. Patrick is a public holiday in Ireland. The Irish took the opportunity to go out and party ... so much that the government simply banned the opening of pubs after 5 p.m. on that day! This law will be withdrawn in 1970 (one thousand nine hundred and seventy) and the evening of St. Patrick’s Day renew is success. In Ireland, when St. Patrick's Day is on a Sunday ...  the following Monday is a holiday. One more reason to party!

1. The perception abroad…

St. Patrick’s celebration is made by Irish all over the world, expatriates and descendants of many emigrants, and its popularity now extends to non -Irish who participate to the festivities and claim to be "Irish for a day." The celebrations usually involve the green color and all that belongs to the Irish culture: St. Patrick’s festival as practiced today, sees the participants, whether they are Christian or not, wear a garment with green, attend "parades" consume Irish meals and drinks, and, above all alcoholic beverages!

Abroad, this festival is mostly seen as a celebration of what makes Ireland: green, clover and beer. Excessive consumption of the latter being widely encouraged by the spirit of party and breweries, sometimes giving rise to excess, both in terms of health (especially with the binge drinking: and the excessive consumption patterns of alcohol over a short period of time, one-time or repeated episodes) and culturally, where St. Patrick becomes a kind of cult Irish beer in the collective imagination. Christian leaders in Ireland have expressed concern about the secularization of St. Patrick.

To conclude, Saint Patrick was initially a religious holiday. This saint is the one who brought Christianity to Ireland and now this story is part of the Irish culture.

Around the world, the story of the saint Patrick has nothing religious. Today it is a celebration where everyone gathers for drinking Irish beer dressed in green.

But now a days, it leaves room to abuses with the binge drinking.

Each year the world celebrates St. Patrick's Day on March 17, without really knowing what this event is.

La Saint Patrick

Célébrée le 17 mars, la très populaire fête nationale irlandaise est devenue un joyeux prétexte sortir et s'amuser que l'on soit à Dublin... Ou pas ! Ainsi, partout dans le monde, on célèbre ce Patrick. La couleur verte est à l'honneur dans toutes les grandes villes. Des parades sont organisées et on se retrouve dans les pubs pour trinquer entre amis.

Hors, Saint Patrick n’est pas seulement ça.

Cependant, nous pouvons nous demander ce qui est exactement la St Patrick? Jusqu'où est-il célébré?

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