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How a Pagan celebrates St Patricks Day
How a Pagan celebrates St Patrick’s Day
17 March is much more than just Guinness, pinching, and wearing green. 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 Kingdom alone. Pagan festivals and holidays tend to be rooted around deep connections with nature and natural seasonal cycles.
St Patrick’s Day honours the patron saint of Ireland, St Patrick, who was instrumental in transitioning Ireland away from Paganism towards Christianity. You’ve probably heard the legend of St Patrick delivering a sermon so powerful it chased the snakes out of Ireland. That story is believed by many to be a metaphor representing St. Pat chasing the Pagans and Druidic priests (the snakes) out of the country.
For the men and women who identify as Pagan, there are inimical feelings around the sordid history of the day and what it represents, with many choosing not to acknowledge it at all. We reached out to two people who identify with the Pagan religion to hear how they celebrate (or more accurately, commiserate) on St. Patrick's Day and what the day represents for them.
‘I think the real question here is not why I do or don’t like St. Patrick’s Day, but why do Pagans dislike St Patrick’s Day,’ Sprialdancer, a Pagan in her early 50s, tells Metro.co.uk.‘Celebrations of this day may have become more secular over the years, but at its origin, it’s a celebration of patriarchal religious colonialism and the destruction of indigenous traditions. Which is not cool.’
‘It’s also totally attributed to this man, who “drove the snakes” (widely believed to be the Druids and worshippers of the Divine Feminine in her many guises) out of Ireland. Which is not true.’
‘This Christian conversion happened over time. Aggressively evangelizing the native Irish and turning them away from their ancestral traditions, their indigenous religions, and the worship of their indigenous Gods through social and psychological pressure isn’t really a positive act, and today would be seriously frowned upon.
. . . . .
Read more: http://metro.co.uk/2017/03/17/how-a-pagan-celebrates-st-patricks-day-6513439/#ixzz4bbrQWIYE