When you see green buildings, green hats, green bands, green hoodies, green scarfs, green hair accessories, basically everything green – all around, you can safely assume that it’s time for St. Patrick’s Day. We enjoyed Saint Patrick’s Day Parade in Dublin, 2 years in a row, and it’s one of the most colorful parades we have seen.
Saint Patrick’s Day Parade in Dublin, 2017
I was not interested in the wiki kind of history of why this day is celebrated, so I asked a few of our Irish friends. Below is what I got to know and will probably remember for a long time.
St. Patrick’s Day is celebrated in the honor of St. Patrick, who apparently seems to be more of a hypothetical character. Nobody knows if he existed but the story goes somewhat like this. He was born in Wales, kidnapped, and brought to Ireland as a slave. He spent a couple of years as a slave before he managed to escape and get back to wales. Then he got an insight that he should bring Christianity to Ireland and came back to the country. St. Patrick spread the religion and converted people into Christianity. He is known to have brought and saved Christianity in Ireland. He also made Shamrock famous (which is now the national symbol of Ireland) which essentially means God is present in three forms (coinciding with three leaves of a shamrock) which are all one i.e. God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit of God.
St. Patrick is also responsible for making snakes disappear from the country. Now Ireland doesn’t even have any archaeological evidence of snakes. Another fun fact is that this festival was not famous in Ireland a few years back. It all started with the UK and parts of the US, where Irish people who had migrated from the country started celebrating Saint Patrick’s Day, and it picked up here consequently. For natives, Saint Patrick’s Day is more about drinking (as Irish people love their beer) and the parade is mainly for kids and tourists.
The Colorful Parade
The parade was very colorful and a huge opportunity for photography enthusiasts like us. Below are some of our favorites from the event, if you would like to see them.
