Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Saint Patrick’s Day is celebrated each year on March 17th, the day that it is believed that he died. In Ireland, Saint Patrick’s Day is both a holy day and a national holiday. The real St. Patrick wasn't Irish... he was born in Britain around A.D. 390 to an aristocratic Christian family with a townhouse, a country villa, and plenty of slaves. Patrick professed no interest in Christianity as a young boy. At 16, Patrick's world turned....

He was kidnapped and sent overseas to tend sheep as a slave in the chilly, mountainous countryside of Ireland for seven years. It was a terrible time for him but it was during this time that he was converted to christianity. Although it began in Ireland, Saint Patrick’s Day is celebrated in countries around the world. People with Irish heritage remind themselves of the beautiful green countryside of Ireland by wearing green and taking part in the festivities.

Saint Patrick’s Day is usually celebrated with a parade. The one in Dublin, Ireland is known to some as the Irish Mardi Gras. But the one in New York City is actually one of the biggest. It lasts for hours. Two Irish wolfhounds, the mascots of the New York National Guard infantry regiment the “Fighting 69th”, always lead the parade. More than one hundred bands and a hundred thousand marchers follow the wolfhounds in the parade.

Out, Out... Damn Ye Snakes!

I'm sure nearly everyone has heard the story that Ireland has no snakes because St. Patrick got rid of them and  how he climbed the Hill of Tara, raised his staff and commanded all the snakes to leave the island. Legend has it that there was one snake in particular that was just too stubborn to leave.

So  St. Patrick made a box into which he invited the slithery little fellow to crawl, but the snake resisted, insisting the box was too small for his svelte but still impressively bulky form. This disagreement led to an argument that could only be solved when the snake agreed to crawl into the box to prove to St. Patrick that it was, indeed, too small for him to fit into. Of course, once he crawled in, wily old Patrick shut the door on the box and tossed the snake into the sea. And that's why there are no snakes in Ireland....but is this story really true?

So, why are there no snakes in Ireland...really? To put it plainly, they can't swim and don't like the cold. Nope, nothing to do with St. Patrick. I know this may come as quite a shock to many of you and the true reason may not be as fanciful and romantic as the legend but it is indeed quite interesting from a scientific standpoint. So, before you all start sending me nasty letters...let me explain.

Ireland isn't the only island without native snakes. New Zealand doesn't have any either (although it had a snaky reptile 20 million years ago). The only snakes near Hawaii are elusive sea snakes, and the island is pretty serious about keeping out the land varieties. We hear that Greenland and Antarctica are snake-free as well. According to NationalZoo, , there never were any snakes in Ireland and probably has more to do with the vagaries of geography than any neat tricks performed by St. Patty.

Ancient snake fossils are found only on southern continents, suggesting that snakes first radiated from Gondwanaland—a former supercontinent comprised of modern-day Antarctica, South America, Africa, India, and Australia. Migrating to Ireland wasn't an option at this time, as the area was completely underwater. The chalky sediments that would eventually become the 700-foot Cliffs of Moher on Ireland's west coast were being laid down at the bottom of the sea.

So where did the myth of St. Patrick and the snakes come from? Most scholars agree that snakes symbolize paganism, which St. Patrick is also credited for banishing from Ireland. Snakes as symbols of evil are prevalent throughout Judeo-Christian mythology, most notoriously in the Garden of Eden as a tempter of Eve. While not the first to bring christianity to Ireland, it is St. Patrick who is said to have encountered the Druids at Tara and abolished their pagan rites.

The Day Everyone Is Irish

Irish Blessing

May you always have...
Walls for the winds
A roof for the rain
Tea beside the fire
Laughter to cheer you
Those you love near you
And all your heart might desire.


St. Patrick's Day is tomorrow, and as you've probably noticed it is brewing up to be a big to-do.....green beer, emerald colored rivers, leprechaun footprints are seen on sidewalks and shamrocks by the hundreds appear like magic. What most folks don't realize is that while St. Patrick is credited with driving the snakes out of Ireland, those snakes were probably just a metaphor for early Celtic Paganism. Once St. Patrick arrived, he spread the gospel far and wide, effectively converting an entire race of people to the new religion. The story of St. Patrick is an interesting one, though, and he was credited with a miracle for his work in Ireland.

The real St. Patrick was believed by historians to have been born around 370 c.e., probably in Wales or Scotland. Most likely, his birth name was Maewyn, and he was the son of a Roman Briton named Calpurnius. As a teen, Maewyn was captured during a raid and sold to an Irish landowner as a slave. During his time in Ireland, where he worked as a shepherd, Maewyn began to have religious visions and dreams -- including one in which showed him how to escape captivity. Once back in Britain, Maewyn moved on to France, where he studied in a monastery. Eventually, he returned to Ireland to "care and labor for the salvation of others", and changed his name to Patrick, which means "father of the people."