From 4-leaf clovers to some unexpected history, all you need to know about St. Patrick’s Day

NEW YORK — If it’s March and it’s green, then it must be St. Patrick’s Day.

The day in honor of Ireland’s patron saint is a global celebration of Irish heritage. And nowhere is that more true than in the United States, where parades take place in cities across the country and all kinds of food and drinks take on an emerald hue.

In fact, it was among Irish-American communities that the day became the celebration that it is, from its roots as a more solemn day with a religious observance in Ireland.

But even in America, it was about more than a chance to dye river green (looking at you, Chicago) or simply pull out a favorite green item of clothing from the closet; it was about putting down roots and claiming a piece of the country’s calendar.

According to experts, Patrick was not really Irish. Born at the end of the fourth century, he was captured as an adolescent and ended up as a slave in Ireland. He fled to another part of Europe where he trained as a priest and returned to Ireland in the fifth century to promote the spread of Christianity.

A few centuries later he was canonized by the Catholic Church and, like other saints, a day was dedicated to him, March 17. He became the patron saint of Ireland, and even when religious strife broke out between Catholics and Protestants, he was claimed by both, says Mike Cronin, historian and academic director of Boston College Dublin.

The short answer: the Irish came to America and brought their culture with them. St. Patrick’s Day celebrations predate the founding of the US, in places like Boston and New York City. The first parade was held in Manhattan in 1762.

While in Ireland the day was marked with a more religious setting and solemnity well into the 20th century, in America it became the cultural and boisterous celebration that it is today, marked by many people without a trace of Irish heritage.

As people in Ireland began to see how the day was marked in the U.S., it became more of a festival in its home country than a strictly religious celebration, Cronin says, pointing to the parades, parties and other festivities held.

Oh, and by the way, for those who like to shorten names, use St. Paddy’s Day, not St. Patty’s Day. Paddy is a nickname for Pádraig, the Irish spelling of Patrick.

Holidays are not just days when you see bands passing by or wear a specific outfit or costume.

Being able to mark a holiday and have others mark it is a way to “establish roots and show that you’ve made it in American culture,” said Leigh Schmidt, a professor at the Danforth Center on Religion and Politics at Washington University. . “You have staked your claim on that American calendar, in American civil life, by having these holidays universally recognized.”

The spread of St. Patrick’s Day celebrations across the U.S. was a way for Irish immigrant communities, who faced discrimination and opposition in the 19th century, to take that stand. He says: “It’s a kind of Irish immigrant way of dealing with the nativist antagonism against them.”

A popular sight around the holiday is the shamrock, or three-leaf clover, linked to Ireland and St. Patrick.

However, the lucky ones come across something that is harder to find: a four-leaf clover. That’s because it takes a recessive trait or traits in the clover’s genetics for it to have more than the normal three leaves, says Vincent Pennetti, a doctoral candidate in the University of Georgia’s College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. He has been fascinated by plants since high school.

Four-leaf clovers “are real. They are rare,” he says.

That doesn’t mean they can’t be found. People just have to keep their eyes open and “get really good at noticing patterns and breaks in the patterns, and then they immediately start pouncing on you,” he says.

Katie Glerum finds them. The 35-year-old New York City resident says it’s not unheard of for her to be somewhere in Central Park and see one. She usually picks it up and often gives it to someone else if there is a positive response.

“If it happened every day, I’d probably be less excited about it,” she says. “But yes, when it happens, it is exciting.”