About St. Patrick's Day

Do you celebrate or enjoy St. Patrick’s Day in March?

 

This year (2024), St. Patrick’s Day will be observed on Sunday, March 17. The holiday originally started as a Christian feast day for celebrating the life of St. Patrick and the spreading of Christianity to Ireland. Today, it is a day of revelry and a celebration of all things Irish. Don’t forget to wear the color 1(                )!!

 

The significance of March 17 is that it’s said to be the date of St. Patrick’s death in the late 5^th century. The man who would eventually become St. Patrick was born in Britain (part of the 2.  ______________ Empire at the time) as Maewyn Succat in the late 4^th century. His family was Christian, but it’s said that Maewyn himself was an 3. _____________________ (=meaning the one who denies the existence of God) throughout his childhood.

 

That would change at age 16 (around A.D. 400), when Maewyn was kidnapped from his home on the west coast of Britain by Irish pirates, who proceeded to carry him off to Ireland and force him to work as a 4._________________ herding sheep. After six years, he escaped his captors, walking nearly 200 miles through the Irish landscape and convincing a ship to carry him with them back to Britain. This harrowing experience certainly had an effect on Maewyn, who was convinced it was the Lord who protected him and delivered him safely home.

 

Upon returning home, Maewyn received his call (in a dream) to preach

5. ____________ in Ireland, of all places. He spent the next 15 or so years in a monastery in Britain, preparing for his missionary work. When he became a priest, his name was changed to Patricius, and he returned to the land of his captors to begin his teachings. Patricius traveled from village to village to share the teachings of the Lord and was successful enough to eventually found many churches there.

 

People wear a 6. sh______________ (= a type of clover, used as a symbol of Ireland) on St. Patrick’s Day because, legend says, St. Patrick used its three leaves to explain the Holy 7. ______________ in his teachings, which is the Father, the Son, and the Spirit as three divine persons who are one divine being God.

 

*Fun Facts:

- Before green is the color of St. Patrick’s Day, the color 8.______________ was associated with St. Patrick.

- The first St. Patrick’s Day parade in the American colonies was held in

9. ______________________ City on March 17, 1762.

- St. Patrick’s Day is the traditional day for planting 10. ______________, even in the snow! Cabbage seeds are often planted on St. Patrick’s Day, too, and old-time farmers believed that to make them grow well, you needed to plant them while wearing your nightclothes.

 

 

Answer Keys

1.  Green

2.  Roman

3.  Atheist

4.  Shepherd

5.  Gospel

6.  Shamrock

7.  Trinity

8.  Blue

9.  New York City

10.      peas