Why the color of St. Patrick's Day changed from blue to green

The St. Patrick's Day usually conjures up pictures of party, Catholicism, Irish nationalism and perhaps the most famous in the color of Green: green clothes, green pub rocks, green beer and green rivers.

Read more: From religious roots to global vacation is what you should know about St. Patrick's Day

So my students are often surprised when I tell them that St. Patrick's Day was once a solemn festival day where they would see the color far more likely. In fact, there is even a color known as St. Patrick's Blue.

“True Blue”

Historians don't know much about St. Patrick. But they believe that he was born in the fifth century as Maewyn Succat.

He was not Irish; Rather, he was born in Wales, the son of a Roman-British official. However, he was captured by Irish pirates and enslaved in Ireland. After six years he returned to Great Britain, but returned to Ireland as one of the missionaries to convert Irish pagans into Christianity. At some point he took over the Latin name Patricius. In the 10th century, the first proof that St. Patrick in Ireland was a popular personality.

In the early 17th century, Luke Wadding, an Irish priest, the Catholic Church, persuaded a festive day for Saint Patrick on March 17.

At that time there were a festive season far away from diamond matters: the Catholics usually went to the fair and then had a quiet dinner at home to celebrate. Other denominations, including Anglicans and Lutherans, also recognized the day. But all memories would contain the color blue. The Dubliner Abendpost reported that in a ceremony to St. Patrick's Day in Dublin in 1785, a group of men who identified as patriots, marched in a large procession garden in real blue and took a number of curious commands. “

Constance Markievz, who fought for independence in 1916 in the Easter uprising and was the first Minister of Labor in the Irish Free State, claimed that Blue was “the old color of Ireland”. In order to combine the past with the nationalist movement, it used blue as a background for the flag of the Irish citizens' Army.

In 1934 the Irish politician WT Cosgrave claimed that Blue was “in perfect, traditional, national agreement with our history and in close connection with the most revered and revered memory of our patron saint”.

With the old, in with the new

Ireland has been a Great Britain colony since the 12th century. Like the American colonists who rebelled against the British crown, a group of rebels named United Irish started an uprising in search of independence in 1798.

The United Irish mainly directed the “wearing of the green” by the Protestants of the middle class and in coordination with some Catholics to represent Irish nationalism and its fight against British imperialism.

The rebellion failed, and the British government made Ireland to part of the United Kingdom in 1801 to prevent future revolutions. The government also gave the Protestants more rights to the Catholics.

Ireland became sectarian in the course of the 19th century, and nationalism was more connected to Catholicism. In a way, the two were interchangeable.

Since nationalism ascendant and Catholics were more numerous in numbers, Green was widespread, especially since it had been worn by the United Irish.

Green crosses the pond

Before the 1840s, most Irish immigrants were Protestants to America, many of whom were the descendants of Scottish settlers in Ulster and later became known as Scots Irish. Like those who would fulfill them, they celebrated St. Patrick's Day to commemorate their connection to Ireland.

In the earliest recorded American celebrations of the day, Ireland and St. Patrick Toastten found in Boston Banette in 1760. In the 1760s, annual parades were held in New York and on the island of Montserrat to celebrate Irish culture and identity.

The Irish immigration into the new world increased dramatically after the great hunger of the 1840s, when the potato plants failed and over 1 million in need of Catholics in the United States arose against discrimination against American Protestants who claimed that they were more loyal to the Pope than the USA. The celebrations were a badge of pride and dignity, and they called for Irish independence to demonstrate that they also believed in republican principles.

Irish nationalist groups that are active in the United States – the Fenians, Clan Na Gael and later Irish North Aid – took part in these American parades for St. Patrick's Day and proudly bore Green to demonstrate their nationalism and the connection to previous nationalist groups such as the United Irish.

In Ireland, however, St. Patrick's Day remained a solemn day of observation with little celebration. The Irish government only recognized St. Patrick's Day as a holiday in 1903, and the first parade in Dublin was only held in 1931. Even pubs remained closed on March 17 to 1961.

Since 1922, when 26 of the 32 counties of Ireland became semi -independent, the Ireland's tricolor flag was the official flag. Green represents the Catholics, orange represents the Protestants, and that knows in the middle symbolizes peace. But Green remains the color associated with St. Patrick's Day and Ireland all over the world, especially because of the Catholic diaspora and its connection with nationalism.

However, Blue still plays a symbolic role in Ireland: Since 1945, the flag, which represents President Ireland, has had a golden harp with a dark blue background – the color known as St. Patrick's Blue.

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