So, in another post celebrating things with distinct origins in Great Britain:

Happy St. Patrick’s day!

Wait, what does that even mean?

Sadly, pretty much all that I knew about this day were the copious amounts of corned beef and cabbage that were served in restaurants and the various shades of green that appeared out of nowhere.  Though I will say that the green is better than the red that occurs during valentines day by a long shot.  But what does this mean?  I remember having threats levying “pinches” if I was not wearing any green item on March 17th, but I’m not even Irish!  In fact, if you wanted to be technical about it, I’m Scottish, that’s not very St. Patty’s now is it?

What’s most interesting about St. Patrick’s day is the fact that St. Patrick wasn’t even Irish, he was an Englishman with Roman citizenship; nor was he a Saint, at least by Roman Catholic cannon.

So why do we celebrate?  St. Patrick was the first Christian missionary to dedicate his life to the county of Ireland.  At the time of Patrick Ireland was a mess of warring clans deemed “unchangeable.”  There was no government, no system of law, not much of anything.  Patrick sold all of his possessions, even land which his father had bequeathed him, and travelled to Ireland to share his faith. In doing so he transformed the country of Ireland.

Here’s to you transforming your own world, I’d drink to that any day.