What's God Got to Do with It?
Rainbows, Leprechauns, Shamrocks, and… Luck...
By Nancy Livingston 

St. Patrick's Day is celebrated in towns and cities right across the globe, but it's probably fair to say that nowhere can the festivities match the excitement and atmosphere of St. Patrick's Day in Ireland! 

People flock to Dublin to see the annual Saint Patrick's Day parade – and this is where the real celebrations begin! With grand parades, community feasts, charity shows, and the Mass, St Patrick's Day is celebrated in Ireland with great gusto. However, the parades, shamrocks, and green beer are actually provided primarily for the tourists! In fact, it has turned out to be one of the most celebrated events in Ireland and a major tourist attraction! 

Both Christians and non-Christians celebrate the secular version of this holiday by wearing orange or green (the colors in the flag), eating Irish food and/or green foods, drinking green beer (usually Guinness), and attending parties. 

In 2004, according to Down District Council, the week-long St. Patrick's Festival had over 2000 participants and 82 floats, bands, and performers, and was watched by over 30,000 people. Saint Patrick's Day as a celebration of Irish culture was rarely acknowledged by the Northern Irish, but today, the biggest celebrations on the island of Ireland outside Dublin, are in Downpatrick, Northern Ireland, where Saint Patrick himself was buried following his death on 17 March, 461 AD. So, in the midst of all the cultural festivities, how did this holiday come to be acknowledged, and what does God have to do with this day anyway? 

In Ireland, St. Patrick's Day has been celebrated as a "religious" holiday, for over 1000 years! Many Irish people start the day on March 17th by going to Mass and offering prayers for the saints and missionaries all over the world. And they celebrate the life of Saint Patrick, He is revered by Christians for establishing the church in Ireland during the fifth century AD. He was a Roman (not Irish) bishop and missionary in Ireland. Two authentic letters from him survive, from which come the only generally-accepted details of his life. In one letter, he shares when he was about 16, he was captured from his home and taken as a slave to Ireland, where he lived for six years before escaping and returning to his family. 

Patrick worked as a herdsman, remaining a captive for six years. He writes that his faith grew in captivity, and that he prayed daily. After six years he heard a voice telling him that he would soon go home, and then saying that his ship was ready. Fleeing his master, he travelled to a port, two hundred miles away, where he found a ship and, after various adventures, returned home to his family, Patrick now in his early twenties. He recounts that he had a vision a few years after returning home: "I saw a man coming, as it were from Ireland. His name was Victoricus, and he carried many letters, and he gave me one of them. I read the heading: "The Voice of the Irish". As I began the letter, I imagined in that moment that I heard the voice of those very people who were near the wood of Foclut which is beside the western sea—and they cried out, as with one voice: "We appeal to you, holy servant boy, to come and walk among us." After becoming a cleric, Patrick returned to northern and western Ireland as an ordained bishop. By the seventh century, he had already come to be revered as the Patron Saint of Ireland! 

Obviously, not all who celebrate the holiday, make it sacred or religious. Like with Christmas and Easter, many chose to incorporate their own form of holiday spice. I do too! I love any reason to celebrate something! And so do many others. Thus came the famous legends around this holiday and their many sources of origin! 

Leprechauns are associtaed with the pot of gold, through a story dating back to the Danes’ invasion of Ireland! Legend states the Danes left the leprechauns in charge of their plundered wealth, which the little men put in crocks and pots and have hidden throughout Ireland. Leprechauns carry two pouches. One holds a silver shilling – a magical coin that returns to the pouch each time it is paid out. The other holds a single gold coin which the leprechaun uses to try to extricate himself from difficult situations. Once the gold coin has been paid out, it usually turns to leaves or ash. A leprechaun will reveal the location of his gold if questioned, if the person questioning him keeps an eye on him. Looking away from the leprechaun guarantees his disappearance as they can vanish in an instant. 

Luck of the Irish has various sources. To some, it is an ironic phrase. The Irish have been, and are a spectacularly unlucky race. The "luck of the Irish" is BAD luck, as any reading of Irish history will document of this irony which goes clear back to the Old Country and migrated to America early on. Nowadays many speakers and writers misuse the phrase to imply GOOD luck. Some trace the origin of this phrase to the US where, during the exploration for gold in the West, there were a high number of Irish people who got lucky, and found their "pot o' gold" in the gold fields of California, or were equally prosperous in silver mining. When the Irish arrived in America, they were very disliked, and treated badly. When the Irish had any kind of success most Americans at the time didn't think the Irish were capable of being successful, so they called it luck, hence the term "Luck of the Irish". 

And that pot o gold at the end of the rainbow? 

The idea that a pot of gold can be found at the rainbow's end originated somewhere in old Europe. In Silesia, an obscure area of eastern Europe, it was said that the angels put the gold there and that only a nude man could obtain the prize. The Irish leprechaun's secret hiding place for his pot of gold is usually said to be at the end of the rainbow. This place is impossible to reach, because the rainbow is an optical effect which depends on the location of the viewer. When walking towards the end of a rainbow, it will move further away." 

And then, there's the lucky 4 leaf clover! The Irish have a tradition that says if someone finds one by accident they will have good luck. Only 1 in 10,000 have 4 leaves. They stand for: Faith, Hope, Love, and... Luck. The green hills of Ireland have more four-leaf clovers than anywhere else, or so the Irish say. And from THAT source, comes the saying, "Luck of the Irish."!There are so many more sources out there for leprechauns, rainbows, pots of gold, and shamrocks. However, I have found my own favorite legend of the shamrock, which has nothing at all to do with luck! 

Legend dating to 1726, credits St. Patrick with teaching the Irish about the doctrine of the Holy Trinity by showing people the shamrock, a three-leafed plant, using it to illustrate the Christian teaching of three persons in one God. He used the clovers' three leaves to represent the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit and showed how all three could exist as separate elements of the same entity. Followers of Saint Patrick began the association by wearing three leaf shamrocks on feast days. And when a clover has a fourth leaf it is said to stand for God's grace, signifying the shape of the cross (hence the notable Irish cross). 

I do happen to have some Irish in me. But I've never been very lucky. In fact, mostly UNlucky! But I have experienced the grace of God, more times than I could ever deserve! Irish or not, I have found that God's grace abounds outside of a 4 leaf mutation of a white clover plant! And given a choice, I'll take God's grace over luck every time!