Driving Out the "Snakes" and Other Shenanigans
by Rory Hudson, Cosmetology junior (Wilmington)
Every year on March 17th, when everyone can claim to be a little Irish, it's seemingly tradition for a large population of Americans to go out in green and gold decked clothes and get absolutely wild on the main streets with friends. “Why is that?” is the question we're trying to answer.
The most obvious answer is clearly that it's Saint Patrick's Day, right? And right you are, but here’s the big question: How do we get a holiday dedicated mostly to getting in large groups and celebrating Irish heritage from a day originally dedicated to a Saint?
Let's start with the basics. What is the reason we even have this holiday to begin with? The supposed origin of the holiday begins in 1631 when the church established a feast day honoring St. Patrick, a patron saint of Ireland who died in the fifth century. That was 12 centuries before the modern holiday was established.
St. Patrick has been remembered for “driving the snakes out of Ireland”, but the curious thing is this: There really weren’t and still aren't any snakes in Ireland to drive out. This is because Ireland's climate doesn’t support snakes. So that begs the question: What did Saint Patrick drive out of Ireland? To find the answer, perhaps we should ask, “Who?”
The answer stems from an unfortunate theory that the churches started to commonly claim that “the snakes” were driven out of Ireland. As a result, many stained glass windows depicting a priest-like man surrounded by many crawling snakes can be found in the stained-glass windows of many churches named after this patron saint of Ireland. However, this claim of Saint Patrick driving out the snakes may be more metaphorical than literal
In the 5th century, the Druid religion was widely practiced in Ireland until priests were tasked to convert or, in other words, kill those who refused to convert. It was Saint Patrick who is praised for being the first man to introduce Christianity to the Irish. As for the defeated Druids — their symbol, you may have already guessed, is the snake.
As a side note — the Druids believed that the three-leafed shamrock would help them see evil spirits and escape in time and the four-leafed shamrock was said to ward off bad luck and magical protection, although when Saint Patrick arrived, it didn’t seem to work very well.
As much as this is a sad story to consider, this is just one theory about a Saint many consider to understand and share the feelings of others. Of course, there are other sources that state that the extermination of Druid priests just isn't true at all and that St. Patrick didn't drive anyone out; in most cases, he was instead, recognized for the majority of the peaceful conversion effort to Catholicism and, as a result, why the church made a day of feasting and celebration for him many years later.
Regardless of the opposing theories, Saint Patrick is the center of many great celebrations today. As for the traditions of getting together for parades and parties, those are much more modern. They started mostly in big cities with a larger population of Irish who immigrated to America.
Boston was the start of the large parades in 1737 which then kick-started other major cities like New York and Chicago into celebrating. Speaking of Chicago, since 1962, the city has colored the river green to mark the occasion every year. Though most of the traditions were to benefit tourists and attract them to the holiday the Irish themselves adopted the practices too like the tradition of the green-dyed beverage favored by adults. It began sometime in the early 1900s with a scientist adding a drop of “wash blue” dye merging with the natural yellow color of the beverage. This actually made it quite unhealthy to drink due to the chemicals in the dye not intended for human consumption. Nowadays, we just drop a drip of blue food dye to mix with the yellow color of the drink to make green perfectly safe to drink.
Now you know that the traditions of Saint Patrick's day are much older than you think, with the newer traditions coming mostly from America. On March 17th, when everyone can claim to have “a touch of the Irish in them,” I wonder what the Irish across the pond have said about our American shenanigans?
Allred, Brandi. “Are There Snakes in Ireland?” AZ Animals, 25 Mar. 2022, https://a-z-animals.com/blog/are-there-snakes-in-ireland/.
Owen, James. “Did St. Patrick Really Drive Snakes out of Ireland?” Animals, National Geographic, 3 May 2021, https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/140315-saint-patricks-day-2014-snakes-ireland-nation.
“St. Patrick's Day.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., https://www.britannica.com/topic/Saint-Patricks-Day.
“Who Was Saint Patrick?” Wonderopolis, https://wonderopolis.org/wonder/who-was-saint-patrick#:~:text=Saint%20Patrick's%20Day%2C%20a,secular%20celebration%20of%20Irish%20culture.