Bonus Trivia for St. Paddy's Day!

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I just got some more trivia in an email:

St. Patrick was a fifth-century English (or perhaps Scottish) missionary to Ireland. The feast day of St. Patrick has been observed in Ireland on March 17 for hundreds of years. The date falls during the fasting season of Lent, but on St. Patrick's Day the prohibitions against eating meat were lifted, and the Irish would celebrate their patron saint with dancing, drinking, and feasting on the traditional meal of Irish bacon and cabbage.

One of the most widespread of today's St. Patrick's Day celebrations, the St. Patrick's Day parade, began not inIreland but in America. It consisted of Irish soldiers serving in the English army and took place in New York City on March 17, 1762. The parade helped the soldiers connect with their Irish roots and their fellow Irishmen.

The Chicago River is dyed green every year on St. Patrick's Day. This tradition began in 1962, when Chicago pollution-control workers used green dye to trace illegal sewage discharges in the river. The workers thought it might be a fun way to celebrate St. Patrick's Day, so they released 100 pounds of green vegetable dye into the river – enough to keep it green for a week.

In ancient Ireland, the Celtic people revered the shamrock as a sacred plant because it symbolized the rebirth of spring. By the 17 th century, when the English began to seize Irish land and suppress Irish language and religion, the shamrock became a symbol of Irish nationalism.

The diminutive creatures we know as leprechauns were known in ancient Irish as "lobaircin," meaning "small-bodied fellow." Belief in leprechauns probably stems from Celtic belief in fairies, tiny creatures who could use their magical powers for good or evil. In Celtic folklore, the lobaircin were cranky fairies who mended the shoes of the other fairies.

Cabbage has long been a staple of the Irish diet, but it was traditionally served with Irish bacon, not corned beef. The corned beef was substituted for bacon by Irish immigrants to the Americas around the turn of the century who could not afford the real thing.

And a nice quote, too:

"There is no language like the Irish for soothing
and quieting."

John Millington Synge, (1871-1909), Irish playwright, poet, prose writer,
and collector of folklore.

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