Whose feast of songs and jokes, of dancing feet and faerie folks,
will be for us the eve of springtime.
I am always in a quest to understand the origin and spiritual roots, if you will, of any celebration and ritual...and so I wanted to see what the spiritual meaning was behind this man, Saint Patrick.
I came across some wonderful information; and one lady, Lorna Byrne, really resonated with me as she speaks to the Spirituality of
St. Patrick's Day...
" St. Patrick is much more important than most people realize; important not just for the Irish but for the world. He came as a slave to a country that was deeply spiritual but had a spirituality of searching. The Celtic spirituality St. Patrick found was rooted in stones, nature and a rich symbolism. A lot of the old Celtic symbols were attempts to unravel the secret of life, a secret that seemed to elude them until St. Patrick came to Ireland in the fifth century.
St. Patrick brought the wisdom that there was only one God and that they each had a soul that would live forever. St. Patrick's Christianity stirred up the Celtic spirituality within the Irish people and gave it meaning. The two belief systems got fused together to create a very potent spirituality which is deeply rooted in the natural world and this is the flame that all people with Irish blood carry today.
Over the years the Irish have worked to keep this light burning. The monks written about in Thomas Cahill's book, "How the Irish Saved Civilization," protected this flame and kept it safe during the dark ages of Europe when so much spirituality was stamped out.
St. Patrick's Day is a day of celebration all around the world. To many it may be associated with alcohol and parades but St Patrick's Day has a much deeper meaning. This day of celebration exists to remind people with even a drop of Irish blood of their roots, to rekindle this flame of light within them."