What to know
- Shane Lynn, an assistant professor of history at McMaster University, says St. Patrick’s Day is to honour Saint Patrick, who was a missionary that spread the word of God in Ireland.
- Shamrocks, or three-leaf clovers, are associated with the holiday due to its association with the Holy Trinity.
- Lynn says four-leaf clovers, leprechauns searching for gold, and the phrase “luck of the Irish” originated from North America in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Torontonians are wearing green and hitting up the bars today in honour of St. Patrick’s Day, an annual Irish holiday that falls on March 17.
Despite the festive cheer and lines around the block for Irish pubs like Dublin Calling and Noonans, it seems most Torontonians don’t know the history behind the iconic holiday.
This morning, Now Toronto quizzed a few of the city’s residents about why the Irish celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, and while some said they have plans to celebrate, most of them didn’t know the history behind the date.
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One resident, Jay, says he went out on the weekend for a preemptive celebration and will be hanging around Downtown Toronto this evening to “see what’s happening around.”
Meanwhile, Vlad just moved to Toronto from Ukraine but is already planning on participating in the festivities. He says he’ll be going to a bar and having a few drinks, “because why not?”
Another resident, Hannah, also celebrated early, she revealed she had a bunch of people over Monday night for a green cake.
Why do we celebrate St. Patrick’s Day?
To learn the actual history and meaning behind St. Patrick’s Day, Now Toronto spoke with Shane Lynn, an assistant professor of history at McMaster University.
Lynn explains that the holiday is to honour Saint Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland, who was born a Welsh slave before being captured and transported to Ireland.
“He returned to Britain, trained as a missionary, and then returned to Ireland again to spread the word of God.”
Saint Patrick’s missionary work is also why the shamrock, or three-leaf clover, is associated with St. Patrick’s Day. Lynn says he used “the Shamrock to describe the idea of the Holy Trinity to the native Irish.”
‘Luck of the Irish’
Don’t confuse the shamrock with the four-leaf clover, which is not a symbol of any kind in Ireland. Lynn says that the four-leaf clover’s supposed “luckiness” and the term “luck of the Irish” originated in North America.
“This supposedly came from the frequency of Irish prospectors in the gold rushes in the American West in the 19th century. A lot of them were Irish and they frequently struck gold,” Lynn explains. “And there was a sort of disparaging sense of this being pure luck, not through skill or hard work. It was a tough roll of the eyes and [people would say] ‘that’s the luck of the Irish I suppose.’”
Lynn says over time the phrase lost its disparaging connotations and became a joking cultural phrase. But there was confusion surrounding the difference between the shamrock and the four-leaf clover.
“Somehow, the four leaf clover, which is a general North European symbol of luck, got mixed up. And luck became something associated with Irishness.”
Leprechauns and searching for the pot of gold is also a North Americanized idea of Ireland. Lynn says it was something that took hold in North American pop culture in the 19th and early 20th centuries that snowballed into what it is today.
“Irish people shrug a little sheepishly at the mention of leprechauns, because it’s not really a thing we think about or talk about in Ireland. It’s associated with this North American tourist idea of Ireland.”
The idea of leprechauns was additionally compounded by pieces of pop culture like Darby O’Gill and the Little People, a 1959 Disney movie that went ham on Irish mythology, and cemented a lot of North American ideas about it.
What do the Irish do?
Going to a local pub and grabbing a pint — or three — is also a pastime that the Irish partake in on St. Patrick’s Day, minus the “kiss me, I’m Irish” and fake green bears and top hats.
Lynn says a ton of tourists go to Dublin on St. Patrick’s Day just for the spectacle.
“Tourists come to Dublin in droves. Dublin is a bit of a war zone every year. It’s just a lot of public urination and people falling out of bars.”
