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MCB HAWAII - Spring welcomes Earth’s guests with warmer weather, blooming flowers and the ability to expend energy pent up indoors during the winter season. Unlike winter’s unwelcoming weather, spring allows for outdoor celebration during the holidays, the first typically being St. Patrick’s Day.
Celebrated primarily in Ireland and the United States, St. Patrick’s Day customs and symbols include: parades, bonfires, leprechauns and shamrocks.
According to Helene Henderson’s book “Holiday Symbols and Customs,” St. Patrick, who was the patron saint of Ireland, was not Irish, but was born around 385 A.D. somewhere in Roman Britain on March 17.
At the age of 16, Irish raiders who sought out slaves for Ireland captured St. Patrick, where he served his master as a sheep herder. During that time, St. Patrick accepted his fate as a slave and convinced himself that he was being punished for ignoring God’s commandments.
After six years of involuntary servitude, St. Patrick heard a voice telling him, “Thy ship is ready for thee,” which encouraged him to escape his life of serfdom. He headed for the coast and was placed on a ship as a crewmember, where he then escaped and found himself in France, then Italy. St. Patrick took advantage of his freedom by “making up for the education he’d never received,” according to Henderson.
During his time in Europe, he had a vision from God telling him to go back to Ireland, where he was once held captive, and to convert the pagan people to Christians.
In 432 A.D., St. Patrick traveled to County Wicklock, just south of what is now Dublin. He returned as a missionary, meeting with chieftains and enlightening them in Christianity.
Throughout his life as a missionary, St. Patrick was in constant danger yet managed to survive until 464 A.D. The most popular legend associated with St. Patrick was his supernatural ability to order all the snakes in Ireland to leave.
Aside from parades, the symbols and customs that pertain to the holiday of St. Patrick’s Day are in some way connected to the saint’s past or Irish history and tradition.
| Date Taken: | 03.13.2015 |
| Date Posted: | 03.16.2015 21:26 |
| Story ID: | 157158 |
| Location: | MARINE CORPS BASE HAWAII, HAWAII, US |
| Web Views: | 50 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Celebrate St. Patricks Day in Hawaii, by Cpl Adam Korolev, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
