St. Patrick's Day
Description:
March 17 commemorates the baptist and patron saint of Ireland, who died on this day. In addition, this day always fell on Lent, a time when mass festivities and noisy festivities are not welcome. The most crowded procession on this day was the procession of parishioners to the church for Mass.
Now it is hard to believe, but in the old days drinking establishments on this day did not work. The tradition of going to the pub after mass and skipping a couple of glasses of whiskey with Patrick’s health friends appeared much later.
For the first time as the official emblem shamrock began to use the detachments of Irish Volunteers (Irish Volunteers), formed in 1778-1779. It was a militia organized to defend Ireland from an external enemy (primarily France) instead of regular troops thrown to fight the insurgent North American colonies.
At that time, the shamrock twig was worn on the hat, not on the chest. During his visit to Dublin in 1820, King George IV rode standing in a carriage, sporting a shamrock adorning his hat.
With the growth of national consciousness, the shamrock became a symbol of the rebellious spirit of the freedom-loving Irish. In the mid-nineteenth century, the shamrock was so associated with the nationalist and revolutionary-minded masses that Queen Victoria prohibited the use of this emblem in the Irish regiments of British regular troops. (This decree alone did more to popularize the new national symbol than volumes of romantic poems.) However, already in 1900, the same Queen Victoria by her other special decree obliged all Irish soldiers serving in the British army to wear a shamrock on March 17 in memory of those killed in the Boer War.
St. John's Day parades. Patrick's an American tradition. The first parades on March 17 were military.
There is a version that such processions with military bands in the holy day for every Irishman arranged to raise the morale of Irish immigrants and stimulate their entry into military service.