Sunday 17 March, people all around the world will don their very best (green) attire and hit the streets and pubs for parades and beer to celebrate St Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland. For those of you that aren’t too familiar with this holiday, here are a few quick facts about the national festival celebrated in more countries than any other.
Born to a well-to-do family in Roman Britain in the late 4th century, Patrick was kidnapped at the age of 16 and taken to Ireland as a slave. He eventually escaped, but returned to Ireland to help convert the Irish to Christianity – it is said that by the time of his death on the 17th of March in 461, he had established many churches, monasteries and schools.
Legend has it that in his teachings, he used the three-leafed shamrock as a metaphor for the holy trinity, which is why the shamrock features so heavily in celebrations. Andgreen, of course, is a colour long associated with Ireland, festival-goers around the world go to great lengths to include green wherever you look, from green-coloured beer right down to green rivers – since 1962 Chicago has coloured its river green to mark the holiday.
While the drinks always flow and the revelry is unmatched on this holiday, the food is never far behind either so if you’re planning your Paddy’s Day menu – and remember that you can find the best quality meat Cape Town and Johannesburg have to offer at N1, your leading wholesale meat supplier – then you’ll want to start off by offering a full Irish breakfast. Highly advisable, considering all the forthcoming imbibing, it’s only considered a ‘full’ breakfast if it includes bacon, sausages, eggs and either Irish potato bread or griddle cakes.
When it comes to lunch or dinner, the tradition in the US is to eat corned beef and cabbage, but that’s not the case in Ireland itself, their tradition has you typically choose between time-honoured Irish shepherd’s pie, stew using the finest cuts of Halaal certified meat, or something called Dublin Coddle which is a delicious dish of layered bacon, pork sausage and potatoes.
For the sweet tooth, particularly if you need an energy boost after a long day of celebrating, there’s Irish fruit cake or bread and butter pudding, usually heavily laced with Baileys Irish Cream – in fact, Baileys seems to sneak into most desserts from cheesecake to cupcake frosting. Perhaps it’s better to stick with the more savoury and meatier dishes and forego the rich cream-based liqueur for another day?
However you choose to spend it, here’s wishing you a happy St Patrick’s Day – or as the Irish would say ‘wishing you a pot o’ gold, and all the joy your heart can hold.’
