St. Patrick’s Day is about far more than shamrocks and smooches.
How much do you know about the holiday and St. Patrick?
St. Patrick’s Day is about far more than shamrocks and smooches. How much do you know about the holiday and St. Patrick?
1. St. Patrick was born:
A. A Frenchman
B. A Briton
C. An Irishman
2. Patrick was brought to Ireland as:
B. A tourist on a Viking Lines cruise
A. A slave of the Britons
C. A slave of the Irish
3. Patrick had a dream in which he was instructed on escaping Ireland in a boat exporting:
A. Potatoes
B. Cattle
C. Wolfhounds
4. Ireland was the only country in Western Europe whose conversion to Catholicism produced no:
A. Female saints
B. Legends
C. Martyrs
5. The first bishop of Ireland was:
A. Charlemagne
B. Palladius
C. Duns Scotus
6. Which town has the most evidence to claim Patrick as its own:
A. Tara
B. Sligo
C. Armagh
7. Besides the legend of banishing snakes in Ireland, Patrick is also said to have:
A. Moved the rock of Cashel
B. Reversed an eclipse of the sun
C. Altered the course of Viking ships
8. St. Patrick’s Day was first celebrated outside the confines of the church in this city:
A. Savannah, Ga.
B. Boston
C. New York
9. The world’s first St. Patrick’s Day parade was held in 1762 in what city?
A. Chicago
B. Boston
C. New York City
10. St. Patrick’s Day became a holiday in Ireland in:
A. 1903
B. 1798
C. 1848
11. The U.S. Congress proclaimed March as Irish-American Heritage Month in what year?
A. 1995
B. 1909
C. 1903
12. What pilgrimage site in Donegal, Ireland, famous in the Middle Ages, may have inspired Dante in writing “The Divine Comedy”?
A. St. Patrick’s Purgatory
B. St. Patrick’s Valley of the Lost
C. Croaghpatrick
13. Patrick and Brigid are two of the three great saints of ancient Ireland. The other is:
A. Michael
B. Columcille
C. Athelrod
14. Who was the most famous dean of St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin?
A. Rev. Ian Paisley
B. Jonathan Swift
C. Richard Brinsley Sheridan
15. The conflicting dates of Patrick’s years in Ireland, and the places where he supposedly lived, has prompted this theory:
A. Patrick is a myth
B. There were two Patricks
C. There were dozens of Patricks
16. Irish is the ––––– most frequently reported ancestry in the United States census.
A. First
B. Second
C. Fifth
17. Which is a traditional St. Patrick’s Day dish?
A. Collard greens and rice
B. Corned beef and cabbage
C. Rack of lamb and asparagus
Green: Not just for St. Patrick’s Day
A look at other things associated with the color green:
– Love: Green was a symbol of budding love in the Middle Ages. The Romans associated green with Venus, goddess of love.
– Symbol of poison: Green dye used to be produced with copper and toxic arsenic.
– Napoleon Bonaparte’s favorite color: His home on St. Helena had green wallpaper, paint and furniture. He was poisoned by arsenic fumes from the green dye.
– Fertility: Osiris was a god in ancient Egypt; he was regarded as a source of Earth’s fertility. Also called “The Great Green.”
– Islam: The prophet Mohammed loved green and it became the holy color of Islam.
– Catholic worship: In 1570 Pope Pius V declared white, red, purple and green the colors of liturgy; green symbolized hope.
Shamrocks, saints and shillelaghs
Here are some icons of the Irish holiday and the history of St. Patrick:
– Shamrock: “Shamrock” comes from the Irish “seamrog” or little clover and refers to the common wildflower. The small, three-leafed herb appears on the United Kingdom’s coat of arms with the English rose and Scottish thistle. The shamrocks found in U.S. flower shops are often imposters.
– Irish flag: Green stands for Catholics, orange for Protestants and white for a wish for harmony.
– Leprechauns: Fairies who work day and night mending shoes of other fairies.
– Shillelagh (shi-lay’-lee): A walking stick. The word is Irish for stout oak club or cudgel. It’s also the name of a forest that once stood in County Wicklow.
Patrick – saint and legend:
387: Born in Britain to a Roman family. His original name was Maewyn.
Early 400s: He was taken to Ireland as a slave; after six years, he escaped to France where he studied for priesthood.
432: He was sent back to Ireland as a Christian missionary by Pope Celestine I, who named him Patricius, which means noble in Latin. He introduced the Roman alphabet, Latin literature and Christianized the land.
Familiar legend: He drove the snakes from Ireland by beating a drum.
QUIZ ANSWERS
1. B
2. C
3. C
4. C
5. B
6. C
7. B
8. B
9. C
10. A
11. A
12. A
13. B
14. B
15. B
16. B
17. B
