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St. Patrick's Day is celebrated around the world every year on March 17th. This holiday is usually associated with the color green, shamrocks, and Irish culture. However, what most people don't know is that St. Patrick's Day has deep pagan roots that date back to pre-Christian Ireland. In this blog post, we'll explore And while the 17th of March was pegged as the day for celebrating the apostle of Ireland, the Church does occasionally move the date (like it did in 1940 and 2008 when St. Patrick’s Day fell during Holy Week and was thus shifted to April 3rd and March 15th respectively). So yeah, bottom line: the Church sets the date of St. Patrick’s Day. A Guest Post by Morgan Daimler. Every March the pagan community, without fail, sees a surge in conversations and diatribes on saint Patrick, usually rooted in the ideas that Patrick was a maniac who wiped out the druids (represented by snakes), destroyed Irish paganism, and singlehandedly converted the entire island. Like many traditional holidays, St Patrick’s Day has roots in Paganism. Paganism today goes by many names and is still a practised around the world, with roughly 250,000 neopagans in the United St. Patrick’s Day has come a long way from its humble beginnings as a religious feast in honor of Ireland’s patron saint. While its roots remain deeply tied to Irish heritage and Christianity, the holiday has evolved into a worldwide celebration of Irish culture, bringing together millions of people in different parts of the world. The legend of Saint Patrick and the snakes is rather an allegory for his eradication of Pagan ideology. When Patrick drives the snakes out of Ireland, it is symbolically saying that he cast out the old religion and brought in a new one. An Image depicting St Patrick casting the snakes into the sea. Image source. Death and Legacy Just like all of their “holidays”, they replace reality with fantasy Christmas was supposed to celebrate Jesus’s (Y’hoshua’s) birth, but now they celebrate the fantasy of Santa Claus. March 17 was originally a day to celebrate Joseph’s arrival, but now they celebrate the fantasy of “St. Patrick” who was neither Irish nor Patrick! The first St. Patrick's Day Parade actually took place in Boston, Massachusetts, back in 1737; the city is known for its high percentage of residents who claim an Irish ancestry. However, some modern Pagans refuse to observe a day which honors the elimination of an old religion in favor of a new one. What are the origins of St. Patrick’s Day? The history of St. Patrick’s Day begins with the man himself. Though many of the stories about him are shrouded in legend, there are some generally agreed upon facts. According to History.com, Patrick was born in Britain, but when he was 16, he was kidnapped from his home by Irish raiders. St. Patrick’s Day, now a secular, cultural holiday here in the United States, has not always been celebrated this way. For the past millennium, St. Patrick’s Day has been a Christian holiday, honoring Ireland’s patron saint, Patrick, on the anniversary of his death. The holiday on March 17 th was not always Christian. In fact, it was St. Patrick’s Day is a global celebration of Irish culture that takes place annually on March 17, the anniversary of the patron saint of Ireland's death in the fifth century. The holiday has St. Patrick’s Day, celebrated on March 17 each year, is known for its parades, shamrocks, and a whole lot of green. It’s a day when people around the world embrace Irish culture — whether they have Irish heritage or not. But behind all the revelry, St. Patrick’s Day has a deep and fascinating history that goes far beyond the modern celebrations. Some of the traditions we associate with How could a good Pagan celebrate St. Patrick driving the “snakes” (i.e. “Druids”) out of Ireland? Why would a Pagan celebrate a day to honor a Christian Saint? I assured everyone that I had not turned my back on my heritage and that I had created a simple Pagan ritual to appropriately celebrate St. Patrick’s Day. 📖 St. Patrick: What’s the Real Story? at the Irish Pagan School. A History of Pagan Religion: The Roots of NeoPaganism. February 20, 2025 February 20, In some stories, he is represented as a pagan chieftain who eventually converted to the new faith, and as such was well known to St. Patrick, and even considered as his friend. Central to the mythology of St. Patrick's Day is the figure of St. Patrick himself—a larger-than-life hero whose story has been immortalized in legend and song. Born Maewyn Succat in Roman Britain, St. Patrick was captured by Irish raiders as a young boy and taken to Ireland as a slave. Ireland's spring equinox and St. Patrick's Day's pagan connection This year the vernal equinox takes place on Monday, March 20, 2023, 9:24pm, when night and day are equal lengths but what's the Modern Christianity will tell you that St Patrick was a runaway slave, a mystic, a miracle worker who drove the snakes out of Ireland and saved us all from the dirty Pagans. Modern Paganism will tell you that St Patrick was evil, established patriarchy, and that the 'snakes' represent the innocent Pagan Druids he had murdered and driven away. Most so-called Christian holidays have a pagan origin. Saint Patrick's Day may be a little different. Although, today the holiday is certainly wroth with pagan idolatry, this appears to be a case of a non-Biblical Christian holiday being made pagan rather than the usual pagan holiday being made Christian. In other words, St. Patrick’s Day was the Christian replacement for a pagan holiday that originated in ancient Greece. Even the symbolism of the oak tree for St. Patrick’s day celebrations was
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