St. Patrick's Day's Symbols

by Tolovaj

Everybody knows that St. Patrick's Day is colored green, full of music, and related to Ireland. But the exact symbolism of St. Patrick's Day is a bit more complicated...

St. Patrick's Day is the most popular holiday of one (not particularly numerous) nation in the world. The 17th March is celebrated on all continents and symbols are an important part of such events. While everybody likes green drinks and the music of harps, most don't know much about the rich symbolism of this special feast.

This article aims to correct this problem. It will try to present the existing symbolism in a historical context so you'll know what are the meanings of the shamrocks, colors, leprechauns, and other elements of the next St. Patrick's Parade you'll attend.

So here they are. 10 symbols of St. Patrick's Day.

Parade on St. Patrick's Day

Art

1. Harp

The harp is a traditional Irish instrument. It was placed in the center of the flag for centuries and later banned for many years. Yet the official ban had no real effect just like the proclamation of the king in The Sleeping Beauty which banned all the spindles in the kingdom couldn't prevent the fulfillment of the prophecy.

Golden harp on green background by Ellen Clapsaddle

Today, the harp is one of the most signature symbols in every St. Patrick-related event.

Nature

2. Shamrocks

Shamrock is a national plant of Ireland. According to one of the best-known legends St. Patrick used it to explain the Trinity in the religion of Christians. Shamrock has three leaves and one stem just like Christianity has three holy entities and one god. To be honest, the shamrock has much deeper roots (pun intended) because it's closely related to the ancient Celtic symbol Triskelion.

St. Patrick just used already existing beliefs to promote new ideas which is one of the characteristics of Christianity which transformed virtually all old pagan celebrations into Christian feasts.

Shamrock and Triskelion
3. Four-leaf Clover

Shamrock with additional leaf is a well-known lucky charm. It's pretty simple to explain. Shamrock is closely related to nature's cycles, and ability to survive the harsh winter or be back with new strengths in the spring. It somehow already presents the immortality of nature. The fourth leaf is a bonus that can be understood as a divine component. Three for perfection, four for divinity.

Celtic Cross

Magic

4. Celtic Cross

Celts used different crosses many centuries before Patrick was born or Christianity existed. A typical Celtic cross is fairly similar to the Christian cross but more complicated. In a way, it represents traditional customs fused with modern beliefs. Celtic cross is another popular symbol of St. Patrick's Day.

5. Leprechauns

A leprechaun is an Irish variation of a dwarf in continental Europe. It represents old natural powers and is closely associated with a dangerous and mysterious underground world. A typical leprechaun has a pot full of gold and is obsessed with it. A legend claims that if you spot a leprechaun on St. Patrick's Day he must tell you where he hid his pot of gold. But leprechauns are notorious liars and will trick you in all possible ways.

His classical defense is to tell you to dig at the end of the rainbow. Another trick is to divert your attention and lose him out of your sight so he can escape. Please note that dwarfs in the famous fairy tale about Snow White are also occupied by gold-digging which makes them incapable of satisfactorily protecting her.

Leprechaun and Pots of Gold
6. Pot of gold

The pot of gold symbolizes wealth. Among poor people, gold meant an unimaginable situation of being rich, healthy, and influential. Even one coin would be a game changer, not to mention a full pot of gold. Gold in all classic fairy tales represents one of the major goals and a leprechaun's pot was cordially accepted as a tradition coming from Ireland to the rest of the world.

Politics

7. Rainbow

Another tradition connecting Pagans and Christians is a rainbow. It's not just a proverbial sign of the place where a pot of gold is hidden. It's also a symbol of hope because it shows after the storm which can be devastating but can also bring life in the form of the rainfall. Without rain, there is no life.

Leprechaun and Rainbow

The Bible used a rainbow in the story about Noah's Ark as the sign of the end of the Flood and a promise that nothing so destructive would ever happen to humankind. It's another symbol accepted by Pagans who converted to Christianity so much easier because it already existed in a similar role in their beliefs.

8. Green

The color green is the color of life. Without green pigment in plants, there is no photosynthesis as the only way to use solar power to enable almost any kind of life form. Ireland has a green landscape, it's often called Emerald Island and green would be an obvious choice for a national color. Yet until the end of the 16th century, it was blue. One of the explanations for the rising role of green could be fights between Protestants who took land from the Catholics in the early 17th century. The national flag of Ireland (golden harp on a blue background) was replaced by the same harp on a green background which represented the Confederation of Kilkenny. The same color was worn again at the end of the 18th century by the Society of United Irishmen who wanted to achieve similar goals as Americans and French during their revolutions.

Irish Flag
9. Orange

While green increasingly became a symbol of Catholicism and independent Ireland, the orange color taken from William of Orange was more and more associated with Protestants and Unionists. But this is only a part of the whole picture. Orange is also closely related to gold which is of course ingrained in Irish tradition. This means you can use it as one of the symbols of St. Patrick's Day.

10. White

The color white in the Irish flag presents peace between green (Catholics) and orange (Protestants). It is also a color of the background in the St. Patrick's flag, so it has a rightful place among the other symbols of the patron saint of Ireland.

St. Patrick's Cross
Updated: 02/03/2024, Tolovaj
 
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Tolovaj on 02/09/2024

Yes, they are of different origins but through times their cultures blended because the perception of each new generation changed a bit.

DerdriuMarriner on 02/07/2024

The St. Patrick cross flag intrigues me.

It's both expected and unexpected for that cross color to be red. It makes sense in terms of red as the color of the Holy Spirit.

And yet IrishCentral of New York City in its What was the original color associated with St. Patrick? article March 14, 2023, identifies blue as the earliest color associated with him. That article mentions a 13th-century image of a blue-robed St. Patrick.

Might you have come across any St. Patrick Day activities that show him associated with blue?

DerdriuMarriner on 02/07/2024

Thank you for the three St. Patrick's Day-related links at the end of your wizzley.

A charming illustration afforded by the myfairyland link gives us a young Irish lass dancing on a chair.

Might there be a top-10 list of dances, musics and songs particularly beloved by March 17 celebrants?

DerdriuMarriner on 02/07/2024

A near-downtown business in my hometown always offered non-shopping passersby and shoppers a delicious, free St. Patrick's Day meal every March 17.

Their mashed-potato colcannon tasted just a tad delicious-er than all their other delicious-est drinks and foods.

What drinks and foods would you have included as St. Patrick's Day symbols?

DerdriuMarriner on 02/06/2024

Your 8th, 9th and 10th subheadings, about green, orange and white colors respectively, calls to mind your wizzley regarding the rule of the threes.

That rule can be said to apply to the Irish flag, correct?

DerdriuMarriner on 02/06/2024

The 9th subheading, orange, indicates that "Orange is also closely related to gold which is of course ingrained in Irish tradition. This means you can use it as one of the symbols of St. Patrick's Day."

The above description inspired me to re-visit the leprechaun with the pot of gold in the in-text image between subheadings 5 and 6, leprechauns and pot of gold respectively.

That image wouldn't cooperate with me as far as the cursor working up the artistic attributions.

Would that attribution information be available to you?

DerdriuMarriner on 02/06/2024

The in-text image between the 8th and the 9th subheadings, respectively about green and orange flag colors, causes me to consider the complete flag context.

The image looks like the flag-supporting staff is dark.

Might the staff color convey something overtly or subconsciously, subliminally, symbolically?

DerdriuMarriner on 02/06/2024

The seventh subheading, Rainbow, includes a partial image of a rainbow.

Sometimes rainbows look like they start somewhere in the sky and terminate somewhere on the ground. Sometimes, particularly for valley-spanning rainbows over mountain rivers and streams, they look like they have two grounded contexts.

How might one know in the aforementioned context which end musters up gold?

(Might leprechauns be getting an undeservedly bad rep -- ;-D -- because of human error in picking the wrong end for the gold-filled pot?)

DerdriuMarriner on 02/05/2024

The sixth subheading, Pot of gold, considers that "Gold in all classic fairy tales represents one of the major goals and a leprechaun's pot was cordially accepted as a tradition coming from Ireland to the rest of the world."

Does that tradition offer gold -- ;-D - in local coinage or from a leprechaun special mint?

DerdriuMarriner on 02/05/2024

Thank you!

That Florida setting of the first, in-text image accounts for the non-Unitedstatesian look to something quite common among March events. Perhaps those buildings are in one of the many Spanish-speaking neighborhoods there.


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