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Fact!
St. Patrick's Day
1. The Basics
Who was Saint Patrick? Was he Irish or Scottish? Was he that jerk who invented the whole "If you don't wear green then I'll pinch you" rule? Why is the sky blue? Why do fish swim? How can they breathe under water? Answers to all of these questions if you just keep reading (yes, even the last questions).
2. Saint Patrick's Day
Saint Patrick's Day (Irish: Lá ’le Pádraig or Lá Fhéile Pádraig), colloquially St. Paddy's Day or simply Paddy's Day, is an annual feast day which celebrates Saint Patrick (circa AD 385–461), the most commonly recognised of the patron saints of Ireland, and is generally celebrated on 17th of March. The day is a national holiday of Ireland: it is a bank holiday in Northern Ireland and a public holiday in the Republic of Ireland. It is also a public holiday in Montserrat. In Canada, United Kingdom (excluding Northern Ireland), Australia, the United States, Argentina and New Zealand, it is widely celebrated but is not an official holiday. St. Patrick's feast day was placed on the universal liturgical calendar in the Catholic Church due to the influence of the Waterford-bornFranciscan scholar Luke Wadding in the early part of the 17th century, although the feast day was celebrated in the local Irish church from a much earlier date. St. Patrick's Day is a holy day of obligation for Roman Catholics in Ireland. The feast day usually falls during Lent; if it falls on a Friday of Lent, the obligation to abstain from eating meat does not bind as St.Patrick's day in Ireland is a first class feast, thus removing the obligation to fast or abstain. The church calendar avoids the observance of saints' feasts during certain solemnities, moving the saint's day to a time outside those periods. St. Patricks Day is very occasionally affected by this requirement. Thus when 17th of March falls during Holy Week, as in 1940 when St. Patrick's Day was observed on 3 April in order to avoid it coinciding with Palm Sunday, and again in 2008, having been observed on 15 March. St. Patrick's Day will not fall within Holy Week again until 2160 - when it will fall on the Monday before Easter.
3. Saint Patrick
Saint Patrick (Latin: Patricius; (Irish: Naomh Pádraig) was a Romano-Briton and Christian missionary, who is the most generally recognised patron saint of Ireland (although Brigid of Kildare and Columba are also formally patron saints). Two authentic letters from him survive, from which come the only universally accepted details of his life. When he was about 14 he was captured from Britain by Irish raiders and taken as a slave to Ireland, where he lived for six years before escaping and returning to his family. After entering the Church, he returned to Ireland as an ordained bishop in the north and west of the island, but little is known about the places where he worked and there is no contemporary evidence for any link between Patrick and any known church building. By the eighth century he had come to be revered as the patron saint of Ireland. The Irish monastery system evolved after the time of Patrick and the Irish church did not develop the diocesan model that Patrick and the other early missionaries had tried to establish. Most available details of his life are from later hagiographies from the seventh century onwards, and these are not now accepted without detailed criticism. Uncritical acceptance of the Annals of Ulster would imply that he lived from 340 to 440, and ministered in what is modern day northern Ireland from 428 onwards. The dates of Patrick's life cannot be fixed with certainty, but on a widespread interpretation he was active as a missionary in Ireland during the second half of the fifth century. Saint Patrick's Day (17 March) is celebrated both in and outside of Ireland, as both a liturgical and non-liturgical holiday. In the dioceses of Ireland it is a both a solemnity and a holy day of obligation and outside of Ireland, it can be a celebration of Ireland itself. 4. Other Answers (yes, we were serious) Was Saint Patrick the jerk who invented the "green" rule? Actually no, it's a tradition when the Irish Settlers in USA, used to tell their children that if they didn't behaved during the celebrations of St, Patrick's Day, they would tell the fairies to Pinch them until they were Bruised during their sleep. And, it worked for Most parents. . . Why is the sky blue? Reflection of the ocean. Why do fish swim? To get around. How can they breathe under water? Gills.
5. Chuck Norris Fact
Chuck Norris counted to infinity--twice.
6. That's All Folks!
Ok people, that's it for this month. Be sure to check back next month for April's Fact! If you have a Fact! Subject you'd like me to cover, submit it to calisplace3@gmail.com. Later people!
Fact! facts are the courtesy of Wikipedia.org.
