Today is Saint Patrick’s Day! This day every year many of us wear green, and die beer and rivers green. We eat soda bread and corned beef and cabbage. But do any of us actually know why? It wasn’t until I was much older that I learned St. Patrick’s Day was not just a day to celebrate the Irish heritage that I and others share, which is much of what it has become, but rather a religious holiday!
St. Patrick is named as the one who was responsible for bringing Christianity to the people of Ireland during the 5th century, although he wasn’t Irish himself. St. Patrick was born in Britain, enslaved in Ireland, later escaped but returned to the nation with the gospel message. He is the one we attribute to being the first person to describe the Trinity using a clover- the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit each represented as a different leaf, but part of the same plant. Starting in the 9th or 10th century, people in Ireland began to celebrate the day of St. Patrick’s death. It wasn’t until homesick Irish began to arrive in America that the holiday began to shift towards what we know it to be today, honoring St. Patrick, and thus, their heritage. This then led to those who shared Irish Heritage uniting to gain the rights they, as human beings in the United States, deserve. Today, St. Patrick is celebrated in different ways all over the world!
As much as I love to celebrate where my family has come from, it has caused me to stop and wonder why we don’t also celebrate holidays for each part of our heritage? I don’t remember ever having a day to celebrate my English or Scottish or Polish or Italian heritage (no, Columbus Day does not count). Has it just been so engrained in who I am that I don’t ever think about it? Is it that society itself does not celebrate these other cultures? Or is it that we celebrate the diversity that makes up our very beings in ways that we don’t need special days?
I don’t know the answer. But I wonder that if we spent as much time celebrating the other parts of who we are, outside of those who share an Irish Heritage, this world would be a much better place. And my wondering doesn’t stop with the diverse heritage that makes up the people of this world! Could you imagine if every Christian walked around with a cross on their shirt like those who are Irish do with clovers? Or if there was some appropriate variation of the “Kiss me, I’m Irish” line that it was everywhere, all the time? Do you think it might be easier for the body of Christ to be united in resisting evil, injustice, and oppression?
It's very possible. So as we celebrate the Irish heritage the runs through this nations viens, let us celebrate all that makes us who we are- the nationalities and cultures we and our families come from as well as our identity as beloved children of God!
Blessings friends,
Pastor Nicole