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Post by pieter on Mar 17, 2015 8:23:32 GMT -7
Saint Patrick's DaySaint Patrick's Day, or the Feast of Saint Patrick (Irish: Lá Fhéile Pádraig, " the Day of the Festival of Patrick"), is a cultural and religious celebration held on 17 March, the traditional death date of Saint Patrick (c. AD 385–461), the foremost patron saint of Ireland. The “Global Greening” gets major new famous monuments as Irish pride spreads worldwide.And also in Amsterdam Saint Patricks day is celebratedSaint Patrick's Day was made an official Christian feast day in the early 17th century and is observed by the Catholic Church, the Anglican Communion (especially the Church of Ireland), the Eastern Orthodox Church, and Lutheran Church. The day commemorates Saint Patrick and the arrival of Christianity in Ireland, and celebrates the heritage and culture of the Irish in general. Celebrations generally involve public parades and festivals, céilithe, and the wearing of green attire or shamrocks. Christians also attend church services and the Lenten restrictions on eating and drinking alcohol are lifted for the day, which has encouraged and propagated the holiday's tradition of alcohol consumption. Saint Patrick's Day is a public holiday in the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland, the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador, and the British Overseas Territory of Montserrat. It is also widely celebrated by the Irish diaspora around the world, especially in Great Britain, Canada, the United States, Argentina, Australia and New Zealand. Children watch the Saint Patrick's Day Parade in Montreal.International students celebrating Saint Patrick's Day at Belfast's street party in 2007 (Photo ©Brian Morrison)Evenement in Newcastle: St. Patrick's Day Festival - St. Patrick's Day Festival Newcastle (© Flickr.com)
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Post by pieter on Mar 17, 2015 8:48:40 GMT -7
Saint PatrickMuch of what is known about Saint Patrick comes from the Declaration, which was allegedly written by Patrick himself. It is believed that he was born in Roman Britain in the fourth century, into a wealthy Romano-British family. His father was a deacon and his grandfather was a priest in the Christian church. According to the Declaration, at the age of sixteen, he was kidnapped by Irish raiders and taken as a slave to Gaelic Ireland. It says that he spent six years there working as a shepherd and that during this time he " found God". The Declaration says that God told Patrick to flee to the coast, where a ship would be waiting to take him home. After making his way home, Patrick went on to become a priest. According to tradition, Patrick returned to Ireland to convert the pagan Irish to Christianity. The Declaration says that he spent many years evangelising in the northern half of Ireland and converted "thousands". Tradition holds that he died on 17 March and was buried at Downpatrick. Over the following centuries, many legends grew up around Patrick and he became Ireland's foremost saint. St. Patrick's Day in Buenos Aires (2013)
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Post by pieter on Mar 17, 2015 9:05:16 GMT -7
IrelandSaint Patrick's feast day, as a kind of national day, was already being celebrated by the Irish in Europe in the ninth and tenth centuries. In later times, he became more and more widely known as the patron of Ireland. Saint Patrick's feast day was finally placed on the universal liturgical calendar in the Catholic Church due to the influence of Waterford-born Franciscan scholar Luke Wadding in the early 1600s. Saint Patrick's Day thus became a holy day of obligation for Roman Catholics in Ireland. It is also a feast day in the Church of Ireland. The church calendar avoids the observance of saints' feasts during certain solemnities, moving the saint's day to a time outside those periods. St Patrick's Day is occasionally affected by this requirement, when 17 March falls during Holy Week. This happened in 1940, when Saint Patrick's Day was observed on 3 April to avoid it coinciding with Palm Sunday, and again in 2008, where it was officially observed on 14 March. St Patrick's Day will not fall within Holy Week again until 2160. However, the secular celebration is always held on 17 March. In 1903, St Patrick's Day became an official public holiday in Ireland. This was thanks to the Bank Holiday (Ireland) Act 1903, an act of the United Kingdom Parliament introduced by Irish Member of Parliament James O'Mara.[28] O'Mara later introduced the law that required that pubs and bars be closed on 17 March after drinking got out of hand, a provision that was repealed in the 1970s. The first St Patrick's Day parade held in the Irish Free State was held in Dublin in 1931 and was reviewed by the then Minister of Defence Desmond Fitzgerald. Children celebrate Saint Patrick's Day in the Republic of IrelandIn the mid-1990s the government of the Republic of Ireland began a campaign to use St Patrick's Day to showcase Ireland and its culture. The government set up a group called St Patrick's Festival, with the aims: - To offer a national festival that ranks amongst all of the greatest celebration in the world- To create energy and excitement throughout Ireland via innovation, creativity, grassroots involvement, and marketing activity- To provide the opportunity and motivation for people of Irish descent (and those who sometimes wish they were Irish) to attend and join in the imaginative and expressive celebrations- To project, internationally, an accurate image of Ireland as a creative, professional and sophisticated country with wide appeal.The first St Patrick's Festival was held on 17 March 1996. In 1997, it became a three-day event, and by 2000 it was a four-day event. By 2006, the festival was five days long; more than 675,000 people attended the 2009 parade. Overall 2009's five-day festival saw close to 1 million visitors, who took part in festivities that included concerts, outdoor theatre performances, and fireworks. Skyfest forms the centrepiece of the festival. The topic of the 2004 St Patrick's Symposium was " Talking Irish", during which the nature of Irish identity, economic success, and the future were discussed. Since 1996, there has been a greater emphasis on celebrating and projecting a fluid and inclusive notion of "Irishness" rather than an identity based around traditional religious or ethnic allegiance. The week around St Patrick's Day usually involves Irish language speakers using more Irish during Seachtain na Gaeilge (" Irish Language Week"). Christian leaders in Ireland have expressed concern about the secularisation of St Patrick's Day. In The Word magazine's March 2007 issue, Fr. Vincent Twomey wrote, " It is time to reclaim St Patrick's Day as a church festival." He questioned the need for " mindless alcohol-fuelled revelry" and concluded that " it is time to bring the piety and the fun together." As well as Dublin, many other cities, towns, and villages in Ireland hold their own parades and festivals, including Cork, Belfast, Derry, Galway, Kilkenny, Limerick, and Waterford. The biggest celebrations outside Dublin are in Downpatrick, County Down, where Saint Patrick is rumoured to be buried. In 2004, according to Down District Council, the week-long St Patrick's Festival had more than 2,000 participants and 82 floats, bands, and performers and was watched by more than 30,000 people. The shortest St Patrick's Day parade in the world takes place in Dripsey, Cork. The parade lasts just 100 yards and travels between the village's two pubs. Saint Patricks Day in Dublin
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Post by pieter on Mar 17, 2015 9:31:17 GMT -7
A St Patrick's Day religious procession in Downpatrick, a medium-sized town about 33 km (21 mi) south of Belfast in County Down, Northern Ireland, 2010Downpatrick, County Down, Northern-IrelandGweedore, County Donegal in the Republic of IrelandYoung kids celebrate Saint Patrick's day in a creative way in the Republic of IrelandSt. Patricks Day parade somewhere in the Republic of Ireland
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Post by karl on Mar 17, 2015 10:41:55 GMT -7
Pieter
Interesting photos and descriptions, I was not aware of this being so world wide. But by virtue of photos so wide spread it is as it is. With the tensions of the day, issues in every day living, rising cost of about every thing, people need these holidays to laugh and play rather they are Irish or not..
One thing though, it is a holiday of colour for sure..
Karl
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Post by pieter on Mar 17, 2015 14:11:33 GMT -7
Dear Karl,
Irish pubs are very popular abroad too. I know about very nice Irish pubs in Arnhem and Amsterdam and visited a very nice Irish pub in Prague to when I was there in august 1997 too. Irish pubs attract international travelers. Rugby or soccer matches on large tv screens and a mix of Irish, English, Scottish, American, Canadian, Australian, New Zealander, native and foreign exchange students, other continental Europeans and locals who like Guinness or Murphy's beer and the atmosphere of an Irish pub. The Irish pub is an Irish export product like the Italian restaurant in Europe and the USA.
And it amazed me that in the Irish pub I saw Irish and English people peaceful together. For some reason English people love Irish pubs in continental Europe. Maybe because they have a lot of Irish people back home in the UK and a lot of Irish pubs over there. Or maybe the Irish pubs are more cosy than continental European pubs. Irish pubs are liverly vibrant places. Music is never far away.
This is the Irish pub in my old neighborhood
Cheers, Pieter
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