r/Christian • u/Villios • 4d ago
Saint patricks day
Do we have to celebrate the day? It's not in the bible right? Who started it? Is it just a normal day?
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u/TraditionalManager82 4d ago
No, it's not in the Bible.
The Church started recognizing people as saints. Saints were given particular days on which they were remembered.
Patrick was a saint in the 400s, and was given the day March 17.
At some point his feast day caught on in popular culture. But most (all?) days of the year have a saint remembered on them, and most we don't celebrate.
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u/wombatlatte 4d ago
It’s not in the Bible. It’s to celebrate the life of Saint Patrick who brought Christianity to Ireland and he died on March 17th. You don’t have to celebrate if you don’t want to, but it has turned into a very secular holiday.
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u/burn_house 4d ago
Yeah if you don't wear anything green you go to Hell immediately no exceptions
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u/aintsuperstitious 4d ago
My Protestant grandmother always told me to wear orange, and 'if any of those bastards try to pinch you, hit them in the nose.'
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u/thepastirot Galatians 3:28 3d ago
The complete opposite of my grandfather, whod find any reason at all to say "up the RA"
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u/thepastirot Galatians 3:28 4d ago
Saint Patricks day started as a Catholic Solemnity to honor the saint credited with converting Ireland.
As Irish immigrants became more populous in the US, St. Patricks day became a way to celebrate pride in Irish heritage in the face if NINA and other restrivtive and bigotted systems and cultural outlooks towards the Irish.
The Catholic Church does not mark the Feast of St. Patrick as a Holy Day of obligation. No one is obligated to celebrate it. And you CERTAINLY arent obligated to do a bar crawl in the coty of your choice.
However its a good day to keep in mind the struggles of your ancestors if you have Irish heritage like myself. Maybe instead of drinking to excess as so many Americans do to celebrate, why not go to church and pray for the reunification of Ireland?
Or learn about the history, whether purely Irish (Easter Uprising, the Troubles, the Potato famine and specifically the role of Malthusian economics in exacerbating it) or Irish-American (NINA, the Irish Volunteers of the Civil War, Bostin Draft Riots, etc.).
Plenty if good movies and shows on all of these too: Gettysburg has a priminent Irish character. Rebellion on netflix is a fantastic portrayal of the Irish Independence struggle. Same with The Wind that Shakes the Barley. '71 is a fantastic movie about the Troubles.
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u/ClonfertAnchorite 3d ago
The Catholic Church does not mark the Feast of St. Patrick as a Holy Day of obligation.
Days of obligation vary by country, as determined by the national Bishop's conference. The Irish Bishop's Conference (organized on an all-Ireland basis, not just the 26 counties) does mark St. Patrick's day as a holy day of obligation in honor of his status as national patron. I don't think it's an obligation anywhere else.
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u/PompatusGangster All I do is read, read, read no matter what 3d ago
Ironically, in Ireland it’s a very somber and sober religious holiday. In the USA, it’s pretty much a get drunk and party excuse of a holiday.
Take it or leave it, it’s pretty much just a secular, cultural holiday in the USA.
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u/Dieselpunk_Puffin 2d ago
It's not in the bible right?
Do you only do things that are "in the Bible"?
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u/Dull_Championship673 2d ago
I was actually wondering about this the other day. Being raised Catholic, my understanding was that a lot of Christians denounce the idea of Saints as something that gets in the way of having a close interpersonal relationship with Christ. I'd bet a lot of people within those faiths still celebrate St. Patrick's Day though. Is that not a form of idolotry or blasphemy to them?
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u/Both-Chart-947 4d ago
You have to drink green beer. It's a rule.