I got up early this morning and put the Irish stew on to slow cook all day. In a little bit, I'm going to try to make a new recipe for Irish Cheddar Beer Bread...usually, I'd throw in a loaf of soda bread (sans the raisins...ugh). I also found a recipe for an Irish coffee cake that I'm going to try instead of sticky toffee pudding.
Today, I want to take a moment to talk about the pagan roots of St. Patrick's Day. Let's start with wearing the color green which it traditionally associated with St. Patrick's day; however, in pagan times the color green represented fertility and the natural earth. Paganism is an earth-based religion.
The shamrock was a sacred plant to the Celts who believed it had the power of protection. St. Patrick is said to have used the shamrock with its three leaves to explain the concept of the Holy Trinity as he tried to bring Christianity to the Celts early in the 5th century.
St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland, was originally the son of a Roman tax collector. One story told is that he was kidnapped and brought to Ireland as a slave. Another one was that he didn't want to take over for his father as a tax collector and fled Roman controlled Britain. Either way, he became the person credited for bringing Christianity to the Celts. March 17th is believed to be the day he died and subsequently became St. Patrick's Feast Day. However, this day did not become a national holiday in Ireland until 1903.
One of the things I remember growing up was that my dad used to plant potatoes and peas on this date. That was my plan as well. However, it's barely 40 degrees here today and my seed potatoes aren't cut up and scabbed over to be planted yet. I'll add it to my to-do list for Good Friday when I have the day off and cross my fingers the weather cooperates. I also grabbed a couple berry bushes yesterday and a dozen asparagus roots that will need planted on my day off.
So, other than cooking some traditional Irish food, I am going to work on getting another book set up for wide release and see if I can make some progress on Ostara. Speaking of Ostara...the sabbat...swing by here on March 21st for a special post regarding the origin and tradition of Ostara.
I'm going to wrap this up with one of my favorite Irish blessings...
May the road rise up to meet you.
May the wind be always at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
the rains fall soft upon your fields,
and until we meet again,
may God hold you in the palm of His hand.
Lá iontach a bheith agat!!