St. Patrick’s Day brings thoughts of leprechauns, rainbows, gold, shamrocks, wearing green, and chasing snakes out of Ireland. For that reason, some people steer clear of celebrating St. Patrick’s Day. There is much more to this day though, even though it is fine to enjoy the fun and make special memories with your family.
Have you ever heard the story of who St. Patrick really was? Do you know that the holiday is not about “luck”, but love? About freedom and truth?
Patrick was born in England and was kidnapped during a raid. He was sold into slavery in Ireland. During this time, he became a Christian and found solace in His relationship with the Lord during very difficult years. He escaped and returned home and tried to make up for the years of lost learning and time with his family.
He felt the urge of God on his life to become a missionary to the Irish people. He returned and was a missionary for many years. During the time, he founded 300 churches in kingdoms across the country and brought more than 120,000 people to Christ. Ireland at the time of his death was much different than the land of slavery he first knew when kidnapped. He came to a land of pagan gods, cruelty and slavery. He died in a land that had learned the truth of God and His love.
Legend says that he used shamrocks, to talk about the Trinity ~ Father, Son, Holy Spirit, three in one. The shamrock was already noted as a symbol of spring and new life. He used the individual leaves connected to one stem to demonstrate the mystery of the Trinity.
As you see, there is much more to this holiday. It is a wonderful time to teach of God’s love and grace. Of loving those who persecute you. Of spreading the light to a dark world.
I like to intertwine the stories of the capture, salvation, forgiveness, and ministering to those that intended evil against Joseph, Daniel, and more recently, Squanto. It is a great time of teaching about God’s love and greater plan.
Some quotes by St. Patrick:
“Christ with me,
Christ before me,
Christ behind me,
Christ in me,
Christ beneath me,
Christ above me,
Christ on my right,
Christ on my left,
Christ when I lie down,
Christ when I sit down,
Christ when I arise,
Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me,
Christ in every eye that sees me,
Christ in every ear that hears me.”
“I pray to God to give me perseverance and to deign that I be a faithful witness to Him to the end of my life for my God.”
“Be still and know that I am God.
Be still and know that I am.
Be still and know.
Be still.
Be.”
This is the true story of St. Patrick from Voice of the Martyrs and here is one from the Billy Graham Association.
This Gal’s Journey shared the story of St. Patrick in his own words.
Here are some ideas to enjoy the day:
Add green sprinkles to pancakes for breakfast
Shamrock Eggs – What a cute idea from The Simple Homemaker!
Enjoy a green smoothie ~ spinach, apple… add some peppermint.
Spring Punch (my favorite punch that changes names with the holidays). Muthering Heights told how orange is the color of Protestant Irish, rather than the traditional green.
Fruit Rainbow~perfect if you talk about the legends of St. Patrick’s Day, Noah’s Ark, colors or just for fun!
Lots of fun ideas from sweet Charlotte at This Lovely Place
Want to make your own green food coloring? Here are some ideas.
Just have some fun with green snacks ~ celery, melons, grapes…lots of choices!
Make some “gold coins” by slicing bananas.
I was in Chicago a few weeks ago and there were St. Patrick’s things everywhere…made me get in the Irish mood. I am of Irish heritage. 🙂
This would have been fun to see! This has been a tradition in Chicago since the 1960s. Enjoy this video of the Turning of the River Green:
Enjoy this free printable set all about St. Patrick’s Day.
OR if you want to keep it simple…get some Lucky Charms Cereal and put on a green shirt. 🙂
Book Ideas:
Enjoy March 17 with your family~I love any excuse to make a memory and make my family feel special. It doesn’t have to be stressful. Keep it simple and make memories that your kids will always remember.
How about you? Do you celebrate St. Patrick’s Day? Share your ideas in the comments~I love to hear from you!
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Have a wonderful day!
Mary
Linking Up with: Time Warp Wife, Proverbs 31 Thursday, Raising Arrows, Raising Homemakers, A Wise Woman Builds Her Home, Deep Roots at Home, Our Simple Farm, Comfy in the Kitchen, Weekend Whatever, A Mama’s Story, The Modest Mom Blog, Happy and Blessed Home
Great post on St. Patty’s Day! Thanks for sharing my fruit salad and supper ideas! We have so much fun on St Patrick’s Day at our house!!!
Wendy
Around My Family Table
You are welcome. I loved your ideas! It is a fun holiday!!
Thanks for retelling the story. The kids and I were outside looking at clover today and I tried telling them the story of St. Patrick, but had forgotten some of the details. What an amazing “witness” he is to us!
We haven’t really celebrated it in the past, but plan to this year. My husband even picked out some amazing looking cupcakes we’re all going to make together. 🙂 Love the other ideas here!
You are welcome. It is an amazing story. It is a fun week/day to celebrate. Enjoy the cupcakes!! 🙂
The Christian fiction author Stephen Lawhead rwrote a fiction book awhile back about St. Patrick. It’s called quite simply “Patrick” and is a fictionalized account of his story. It’s a fabulous read. Love and hugs from the ocean shores of California, Heather 🙂
Thanks for shaing~ I’ll have to check it out. Thanks for always leaving a sweet comment~you are such an encourager!!
I love the story of St. Patrick–I think as my kids are getting older that it would be so wonderful to learn more in-depth about a lot of the early missionaries, martyrs, etc. They are a great testimony of faith! I LOVE that fruit rainbow too! We won’t be celebrating St. Patrick’s Day, per say (blame my lack of organization) but I pinned your post–perhaps to use next year! 🙂 Thanks!
You are so right- make memories with your kids and make them special. I love these ideas! Thank you so much for visiting my blog, its really encouraging!
This is a wonderful perspective on St. Patrick’s Day! Thank you for posting it. I’m going to share.
I must admit that I have not been in the habit of celebrating St. Patrick’s Day because of the association with leprechauns, etc. So, I appreciate this information and the ideas for a Christian celebration.
This year, I took my kids to eat some {totally unhealthy} FREE fries and green ketchup at Burger King. Disgusting! But they enjoyed the experience! 🙂
I know…I felt the same way for a long time. Then I decided to find out more. We love celebrating lots of things around here!
I bet they LOVED the green ketchup!!
These are great ideas! Thanks for sharing. I came over from Mama Moments link up. I’m Irish and have always steered clear of festivities but I wrote a post yesterday on why I decided to celebrate this year. This day is about honouring a missionary and I think it’s a great time to remember all our missionaries around the world.