爱尔兰庆祝圣帕特里克节
On March 17, people around the world celebrate theIrish holiday of Saint Patrick's Day.
It is a major holiday in Ireland, but the rest of theworld has influenced its celebration as much as theIrish themselves.
Most Americans think of Saint Patrick's Day as a bigparty centered around drinking alcohol. But itsbeginnings in Ireland were religious, says Mike Cronin, a professor of Irish history with BostonCollege of Massachusetts.
Ireland is a mostly Roman Catholic country. Saint Patrick lived in Ireland more than 2,000 yearsago. He is widely considered to have established Christianity in the country.
The Church honored him with a holy day in the 17th century. March 17 marks the date of hisdeath.
St. Patrick, a Briton reportedly, is believed to have served in Ireland as a Catholic Bishop. Onetraditional story says that St. Patrick drove all the snakes out of Ireland.
The average Irish person honored March 17 quietly. Attending church services was the mainactivity. In fact, most businesses that served alcohol would close in honor of the day.
In the early 1900s, Ireland's government made St. Patrick's Day an official holiday. By the 1960s, towns across Ireland started celebrating the holiday with parades and music. In Irelandtoday, St. Patrick's Day is a four-day public celebration that includes parades, music, food, andgames.
For Irish people living outside Ireland, Saint Patrick's Day became a chance to celebrate theirIrish identity and culture.
It's very much a day by which the Irish put themselves center stage, Cronin said.
Now, countries and cities around the world celebrate March 17 in creative ways.
Many countries hold Saint Patrick's Day parades. Famous monuments, including the Great Wallof China, the Colosseum in Rome, the Niagara Falls, and the Gateway of India in Mumbai will allbe colored by green light for the day.
The U.S. is especially famous for its Saint Patrick's Day celebrations. Many cities with largeethnic Irish communities, like Boston, New York and Chicago, hold parades and parties. Citieswill also color local rivers green for the day.
Ireland is known as the Emerald Isle. The country is covered in deep green grass.
Cronin says that the worldwide popularity of Saint Patrick's Day has helped the Irishgovernment, which uses the holiday as a form of diplomacy.
So what you have is this quite remarkable day where literally over much of the globe, everybody, whether they're Irish or not, the one thing they do know is the 17th of March isSaint Patrick's Day. And for a small island of 4.5 to 5 million people it's quite remarkable thatthey have that kind of soft power.
However, Cronin says many modern Saint Patrick's Day traditions were invented by the Irish inAmerica.
In the U.S. on Saint Patrick's Day, it is common for Americans to drink green beer or eat cornedbeef and cabbage.
However, Cronin, says, many of these traditions are not really Irish.
You could walk around the streets of Dublin all day and not find any corned beef and cabbage, he said.
Neil O'Flaherty, an Irish citizen now living in the U.S., agrees.
Growing up in a small town in Ireland, O'Flaherty remembers celebrating Saint Patrick's Daymuch differently than it is now.
Back then, for Catholic families, it was the day you had to go to church, you were required to goto Mass on that day. It had much more the feeling of a religious holiday than a public holiday.
He also remembers everyone wearing small, three-leaf plant pieces, called shamrocks.
O'Flaherty said that he was surprised to see how much Saint Patrick's Day in the U.S. hasbecome linked to drinking lots of beer or other alcoholic drinks.
However, there are some Irish connections between drinking and Saint Patrick's Day.
One tradition that does come from Ireland is called drowning the shamrock. Cronin explainsthat this tradition involved taking the shamrock that people wore all day, and placing it in aglass of whiskey or beer before drinking it.
Professor Mike Cronin suggests it is not that important how people celebrate March 17. He callsSaint Patrick's Day "a day for everyone to be Irish."
I'm Kelly Jean Kelly.
And I'm Phil Dierking.
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