Green for unity
On this Saint Patrick’s day, green could be the color of spring, rebirth, and unity in the face of attempts at division.
On this Saint Patrick’s Day morning, up early because one of our hard-wired smoke alarms began chirping its warning of a dying battery back-up, I wondered a bit about the power of a myth that has so many folk wearing green today.
I learned a few things that hadn’t been part of the childhood story. For example, Saint Patrick was born in Roman Britain and sent to Ireland as an enslaved person in his teens. His “luck” in part derives from his escape from enslavement, and his return later in life to establish Catholicism within the mostly pagan Celts. He was neither Irish nor British - but Roman; there were likely never snakes in Ireland; and he was not the first Catholic priest there - the Roman pope had sent someone years earlier. He died sometime around March 17, after writing a personal account of his life that helped establish his myth. His death became a feast day as the Church helped circulate stories of miracles associated with his work.
The rise of Irish pride in the U.S., in response to vast discrimination upon their arrival as immigrants, led to parades in larger cities, especially New York.The association of wearing green with Saint Patrick’s day comes from the New York parade in 1798, during the Irish Rebellion, when New York Irish folk decided to wear green - a color not in the British or Irish flags at the time.
In other words, the story of why many of us will wear green, eat a feast (it is still Lent in the Catholic calendar, after all), and watch or march in a parade involves enslavement, religious politics, political persecution, and immigration. As such, it is a deeply American and international story. It’s the kind of story that should remind us of who we are - a glorious and sometimes problematic combination of persecution and compassion, always looking to find pride in our stories, always ready to celebrate.
We are no one single identity or set of beliefs. If anyone tries to tell you we are, and uses that idea to convince you your neighbors are “not us,” or to convince you that there is some kind of “purity” that needs to be protected - remember that is a lie. A lie told to turn us against one another in the pursuit of power.
On this Saint Patrick’s day, green could be the color of spring, rebirth, and unity in the face of such attempts at division.
Be safe and well, whatever you celebrate today.
Sources used for this post:
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saint-Patrick
https://www.history.com/topics/st-patricks-day/history-of-st-patricks-day
https://time.com/4261456/st-patrick-day-2016-history-real-saint/