ST. PATRICK’S DAY
Although much of the life of the patron saint of Ireland is shrouded in legend, he was probably born around the year AD 389. What we do know about him comes from his book, “The Confession”, which he wrote near the end of his life. It begins,
“I am Patrick, a sinner, most uncultivated and least of all the faithful… My father was Calpornius, a deacon, a son of Potitus, a presbyter, who was at the village of Bannavem Taberniea.”
He was born it seems in the Severn Valley in England. He was British, not Irish. He was doubtless educated in pre-Anglo-Saxon Britain under a Christian influence with a reverence for the Roman Empire, of which he was a citizen. His father was a landowner and together with his family he lived on their estate. At the age of sixteen, when he claimed he “did not then know the true God,” he was carried off by a band of Irish marauders. Irish tradition says he tended the herds of a chieftain in the county Antrim. His bondage lasted for six years during which time, as he wrote, “turned with all my heart to the Lord my God.”
He fled 200 miles to the coast of Wicklow, and encountered a ship engaged in the export of Irish wolf-dogs. After three days at sea the traders landed, probably on the west coast of Gaul, and journeyed twenty-eight days through the desert. At the end of two months Patrick parted company with his companions and spent a few years in the monastery of Lerins. After returning home from the Mediterranean the idea of missionary enterprise in Ireland came to him. He seems to have proceeded to Auxerre where he was ordained by Bishop Amator and spent at least fourteen years there.
While in Ireland Patrick was both an evangelist of the gospel of Jesus and an organizer of the faithful. He battled heresy as well as engaged in trials of skill against Druids. There is some evidence that he traveled to Rome around 441-443 and brought back with him some valuable relics. On his return he founded the church and monastery of Armagh. Some years later he retired, probably to Saul in Dalaradia.
As one travels through Ireland, there are many stories and legends about Patrick. One in Dublin has it that the St. Patrick Cathedral (pictured at the top) is situated at the site of an old well where Patrick would baptize converts into the faith. There is a stone tablet in front of the church commemorating the location (pictured at right).
Other legends report him ridding Ireland of snakes, though it is unlikely that post-ice age Ireland had snakes. For another view on this, see my three articles on the history of St. Patrick at this link.
In modern times the feast associated with his death on March 17, St. Patrick’s Day, has become primarily an ethnic holiday celebrating Irish heritage in much the same way as Columbus Day is a celebration of Italian ethnicity in the United States. Indeed, major Irish celebrations of the day in the United States predated large public celebrations in Ireland itself! In Chicago, there are two St. Patrick’s Day Parades. However, you can’t close down the schools on St. Patrick’s Day without showing ethnic bias. So Massachusetts’ Suffolk County, among other counties, closes the schools to commemorate March 17, 1776, the day the British troops cleared out of Boston in the American Revolutionary War. For the record, they call it Evacuation Day.
How do you celebrate St. Patrick’s Day?
Bill MacPetro, your friendly neighborhood historian
www.billpetro.com
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Tagged as:
History,
holiday,
Ireland,
St_Patrick
HISTORY OF THE IDES OF MARCH
According to the ancient Roman calendar, the ides fell on the 13th of the month with the exception of the months March, May, July, and October, when it fell on the 15th.
It was on March 15, 44 B.C. that the Roman dictator Julius Caesar was assassinated. Contrary to popular belief, including William Shakespeare, Caesar was not assassinated in the Capitol, meaning the Curia Hostilia or Senate House in the Roman Forum at the foot of the Capitoline Hill (pictured at top).
Rather, Caesar was assassinated near the statue of Pompey at the Theatrum Pompeium (pictured at left in the Largo di Torre Argentina in modern day Rome), where the Senate used to meet at that time. This precinct is now a Cat Sanctuary (as you can see the cat in the center of my photo) where I counted over a dozen homeless cats. They are regularly fed by local women.
Marc Antony would have delivered his Shakespearean speech
“Friends, Romans, Countrymen, lend me your ears”
from the Rostra of the Forum, directly across from the Curia (pictured at right).
Dead bodies could not be kept inside the City, and Caesar was cremated in the Forum (at the location pictured on the left). Flowers are left there to this day.
Bill Petro, your friendly neighborhood historian
www.billpetro.com
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Tagged as:
History,
ides,
Julius Caesar,
Rome
HISTORY OF DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME
It seems like only yesterday that we discussed the end of Daylight Saving Time, or DST, a brilliant campaign to convince people that we’re getting more daylight each day, when in reality we’ve simply changed our clocks and then forgotten about it within two weeks. Actually, it was only back in October, or less than 5 months ago.
Indeed, the new rules for DST that began in 2007 meant an extra four or five weeks of DST each year. There are now a total of 238 days of DST, compared to the total of 210 days of DST back in 2006 under the previous rules, and the U. S. remains on DST for about 65% of the year. So think about it, DST will be in effect for most of the year. It might be more significant to recognize Daylight Losing Time.
DST begins each year at 2:00 a.m. on the second Sunday in March in most of the United States and its territories. However there are some places that have not bought into this campaign: it is not observed in Hawaii, American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands nor the state of Arizona except for the Navajo Indian Reservation, which does observe DST. You can read my original full article here.
New this year: an answer to the age-old question “Does DST actually save energy?”
A Department of Energy study was released in early November 2008 showing that Daylight Saving Time does in fact save energy.
- The total electricity savings of Extended Daylight Saving Time were about 1.3 Tera Watt-hour (TWh). This corresponds to 0.5 percent per each day of Extended Daylight Saving Time, or 0.03 percent of electricity consumption over the year. In comparison, the total 2007 electricity consumption in the United States was 3,900 TWh.
- In terms of national primary energy consumption, the electricity savings translate to a reduction of 17 Trillion Btu (TBtu) over the spring and fall Extended Daylight Saving Time periods, or roughly 0.02 percent of total U.S. energy consumption during 2007 of 101,000 TBtu.
How much again? We’re talking two one-hundredths of a percent annual energy consumption reduced!
How will you spend this energy savings?
Bill Petro, your friendly neighborhood historian
www.billpetro.com
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Tagged as:
History
