[The Chicago River is dyed green each year for the St. Patrick's Day celebration, shown here in 2008.]
Kendle was so excited to wear some green today for school. I don't know how many of the other kids will be wearing green, but I remember when I was in grade school it was a big deal to make sure you had at least a little bit of green on - nobody wanted to get pinched!
While reading about St. Patrick's Day on Wikipedia this morning I learned something new:
"St. Patrick's Blue, not green, was the color long-associated with St. Patrick. Green, the color most widely associated with Ireland, with Irish people, and with St. Patrick's Day in modern times, may have gained its prominence through the phrase "the wearing of the green" meaning to wear a shamrock on one's clothing. At many times in Irish history, to do so was seen as a sign of Irish nationalism or loyalty to the Roman Catholic faith. St. Patrick used the shamrock, a three-leaved plant, to explain the Holy Trinity to the pre-Christian Irish. The wearing of and display of shamrocks and shamrock-inspired designs have become a ubiquitous feature of the saint's holiday. The change to Ireland's association with green rather than blue probably began around the 1750's."
I thought that was interesting, that the original "wearing of green" was to wear a shamrock and not green clothing.
If you want to make a treat for your kids today, you can visit this link to the blog Every Day Food Storage to read about a recipe for some green shamrock cookies. These would be fun to make.
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6 comments:
Those cookies are so cute Sarah. That was so interesting about the facts of St. Patrick's Day. Thanks for the link too.
oh yes sarah, kids are still wearing their green to school. i had a bunch of school kids showing me their green this morning! :) isn't it nice that we don't have to die the columbia river green, it's just "naturally" that color!
Nat, you are funny about the Columbia River. I can't believe that picture of the green river. That must be a lot of dye to make it so pretty. Sydnee has been looking forward to this day at school for weeks. Those cookies look yummy.
Interesting about the wearing of Shamrocks. Who knew?
Your cookies are cute!
What a cool picture of the river. How festive.
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