This is my first St. Patrick's Day
tablescape.
Of course as kids we always wore green on
St. Patrick's Day, but I remember it being
a day when my parents had a little bit of
fun arguing over having Irish blood or not.
My father always wore green and my mother
said she didn't have any Irish in her-
she had English - so she
wore orange (or at least she threatened to!)
So along with all of this familial confusion
I didn't even know (or remember from grade school)
why we wear green and the symbolism of
the cloverleaf.
So I decided to look it up on
wonderful Wikipedia
and found out that St. Patrick's Feast Day
was made official in the 17th Century
to honor St. Patrick, the most commonly
recognized saint of Ireland.
It celebrates St. Patrick and the arrival of
Christianity in Ireland. St. Patrick lived
from 385-461 AD.
Christians also lifted Lenten restrictions
on eating and drinking and that is why
it has become associated with the
consumption of alcohol.
(Needless to say, we won't be imbibing any!)
I found this cute sash at Target and
although I have done a lot of geneology
and haven't found any Irish in my lines,
I like to think my father thought he was -
he wasn't - he was half German, a quarter
Swedish and a quarter Norwegian,
but on his behalf, I am going to claim
"a wee bit".
The shamrock became associated with
the celebration of St. Patrick's Day
because it is said that he used the
shamrock's three leaves to teach
about the nature of the Godhead,
the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost.
The wearing and displaying of shamrocks
has become associated with the celebration
of the day.
(Who knew you could learn so much
from creating a tablescape?)
Of course, we kids just loved the pinching!
And guess what? Wiki answers says that kids
started that tradition - of course!
Orange was the color of protest - but we
aren't protesting at this table.
Originally the color associated with St. Patrick's
Day was blue, but that started to change
in the 17th century.
Since most holidays celebrated
at
Purple Chocolat Home
are geared towards the wee ones,
there has to be plenty of green candy
on the table.
(They regularly raid my tables for candy!)
And we better make mint flavored
Shamrock Shakes to serve my
little leprechauns.
(Did you know that wearing green is
supposed to make you invisible to leprechauns and
that leprechauns are associated with
St. Patrick's Day because of the Irish belief in
fairies and the like?)
Green and white are the colors
of our St. Patrick's Day Feast so that
we are official in our celebration.
We often ate corned beef and cabbage
for St. Patrick's Day, but I found out that
although cabbage was a part of the diet
of native Irishmen, corned beef was added
around the turn of the century, because Irish bacon
was too expensive for Irish immigrants and
they learned about a less expensive cut of meat
from their Jewish neighbors.
(Didn't know that one either!!)
(That one was from history.com.)
So we have a beautiful cabbage
as part of our centerpiece.
(with very non-Irish script!)
Whether I am Irish or not,
I am going to have a little fun
with St. Patrick's Day and now
I am going to enjoy it even more.
I will be posting this with
