Anyone who’s ever walked on Fifth Avenue of New York City on March 17 has seen the spectacle of the St. Patrick’s Day Parade.

Droves of drunk people dress up in anything and everything kelly green they can find. Shamrocks dot the streets like stars in the sky, and Guinness and Notre Dame benefit from free advertising as folks don their Hibernian merchandise. The picture is completed with shirts displaying borderline offensive slogans and pictures of leprechauns.

St. Patrick’s Day is two weeks away, but before you drink your Baileys, Guinness and Jameson, there are some misconceptions about the holiday and the man behind it that need to be addressed.

In Ireland, St. Patrick’s Day was not so much a holiday but a holy day – a day to attend mass, after which the wildest celebration was breaking the protocols of Lent with a feast. Obviously, there was drinking, but nothing like what goes on today. Using the holiday as an excuse to get hammered started in good old “Amurikah,” and was exported back across the Atlantic.

In fact, the first St. Patrick’s Day parade took place in New York. When Irish-Americans came out to show their ethnic pride, newspapers depicted them as drunken buffoons and elicited current stereotypes. Ever since, it seems, this portrayal has been embraced and continued as a moral obligation every March 17.

There’s not only confusion about how the traditional shenanigans of St. Patrick’s Day began, but also about the man who inspired the holiday.

Many symbols of the Emerald Isle are attributed to St. Patrick.

According to legend, in converting the once-pagan nation to Catholicism, he used the shamrock with its three leaves to represent the Holy Trinity. In doing so, he established the most widely recognized emblem of Ireland.

He continued this tactic of fusing known pagan symbols with Catholic ones. Because the Irish had worshipped the sun, he combined it with the eminent Christian symbol. The result was the Celtic cross.

Because St. Patrick contributed so greatly to Irish culture, there is nothing worse than when someone claims St. Patrick was Italian.

First of all, he was born in present-day Scotland, so really, he was British (ironic that a Brit instilled the Irish cultural identity that led to centuries of conflict between the two nations). At the time, it was the Roman province of Britannia. St. Patrick was not Italian. His parents were Romans. There’s a big difference.

Rome controlled more than half of the known world, that doesn’t mean every person born within the empire was Italian.

Still not convinced? Consider this, Italians: Giuseppe Garibaldi, who’s essentially the George Washington of Italy, was born in Nice, France. That’s right. Italy’s national hero was French.

Yet Garibaldi’s extraordinary leadership of the “Red Shirts” is what united Italy and made the country what it is today. Italians celebrate him as a national hero, and rightfully so. Italy was an ankle boot, and is now knee-high, thanks to him. It’s irrelevant he wasn’t born there.

The same situation applies to St. Patrick. He wasn’t born within the borders of Ireland, but his contributions to the country make him a true Irishman, just as Garibaldi’s make him a true Italian. The only difference: Whereas Garibaldi’s iconic color was red, St. Patrick’s was green.

I’m not criticizing Italy. E un paese bellissimo with a rich history and culture you’d be a fool not to appreciate. But Italians staking a claim on St. Patrick is offensive.

You can’t choose where you’re born. Sometimes, however, you can choose where you die. St. Patrick chose Ireland. And before he passed, he created much of what it means to be Irish in the modern sense of the word. He gave an entire nation a religious and cultural identity.

When you celebrate his feast day in two weeks, be sure to raise a glass to St. Patrick. It doesn’t matter where you’re born. On St. Patrick’s Day, everyone’s Irish.

James O’Hare is a senior history and political science major. His column appears weekly. He can be reached at [email protected]. Erin go Bragh! 

Published on March 5, 2013 at 2:05 am