I love St. Patrick's Day. I think it is such a great time to pass on to my girls some love of their Irish heritage (now we just need a Scottish and Norwegian holiday) It makes me sad that St. Patrick's Day is celebrated in America as a drunken fest, giving most Americans the association of the Irish people and drunkenness.
There are so many beautiful aspects of the Irish culture, these are the ways we try to honor them this week.
Faith - St. Patrick is celebrated for bringing the Christian faith to Ireland. He used the clover leaf to teach about the trinity. The three leaves represented the Father, Son and Holy Ghost. We started making clover leaf cookies last year, to use to talk about the trinity as St. Patrick did.
Music and dance - this year we are going again to the Denver Brass, Bagpipes and Co. It is a wonderful showcase of Celtic dance and music. Emily is going for the first time this year. I can't wait to see her reaction to the show.
Food - We make Irish soda bread each year. The same as my mom does.
Literature and Legends- when we were in Ireland a few years ago, we bought some wonderful children's books of Irish legends. The girls especially love the legends of Aoife and Finn McCool.
The last thing we do, but not this week, is travel. We want the girls to know the countries their family came from. The above picture is Sarah in Ireland at about 20 mos old. How does your family pass on Irish or other national heritages to your children?
1 comments:
My family (dad's side) is Irish and sadly, we don't really celebrate this day in a special way.
One year, we had a St. Patrick's day dinner with some of our dear friends here. We had corned beef and potatoes and everything else was green--green beans, green salad, green jello. I even made green rice krispie treats. My kids still talk about that. I should probably indulge them tomorrow!!!
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