Wearin' Of The Green Table

This is my first St. Patrick's Day

tablescape.

Of course as kids we always wore green on

St. Patrick's Day, but I remember it being

a day when my parents had a little bit of 

fun arguing over having Irish blood or not.

My father always wore green and my mother

said she didn't have any Irish in her-

she had English - so she

wore orange (or at least she threatened to!)

So along with all of this familial confusion

I didn't even know (or remember from grade school)

why we wear green and the symbolism of

the cloverleaf.

So I decided to look it up on

wonderful Wikipedia 

and found out that St. Patrick's Feast Day

was made official in the 17th Century 

to honor St. Patrick, the most commonly

recognized saint of Ireland.

It celebrates St. Patrick and the arrival of

Christianity in Ireland.  St. Patrick lived

from 385-461 AD.  

Christians also lifted Lenten restrictions

on eating and drinking and that is why

it has become associated with the

consumption of alcohol.

(Needless to say, we won't be imbibing any!)

I found this cute sash at Target and

although I have done a lot of geneology

and haven't found any Irish in my lines,

I like to think my father thought he was - 

he wasn't - he was half German, a quarter

Swedish and a quarter Norwegian, 

but on his behalf, I am going to claim

"a wee bit".

The shamrock became associated with

the celebration of St. Patrick's Day

because it is said that he used the

shamrock's three leaves to teach

about the nature of the Godhead,

 the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost.

The wearing and displaying of shamrocks

has become associated with the celebration

of the day.

(Who knew you could learn so much

from creating a tablescape?)

Of course, we kids just loved the pinching!

And guess what?  Wiki answers says that kids

started that tradition - of course!

Orange was the color of protest - but we

aren't protesting at this table.

Originally the color associated with St. Patrick's

Day was blue, but that started to change

in the 17th century.

Since most holidays celebrated

at 

Purple Chocolat Home

are geared towards the wee ones,

there has to be plenty of green candy

on the table.  

(They regularly raid my tables for candy!)

And we better make mint flavored

Shamrock Shakes to serve my 

little leprechauns.

(Did you know that wearing green is

supposed to make you invisible to leprechauns and

that leprechauns are associated with 

St. Patrick's Day because of the Irish belief in

fairies and the like?)

Green and white are the colors 

of our St. Patrick's Day Feast so that

we are official in our celebration.

We often ate corned beef and cabbage

for St. Patrick's Day, but I found out that

although cabbage was a part of the diet

of native Irishmen, corned beef was added 

around the turn of the century, because Irish bacon

was too expensive for Irish immigrants and 

they learned about a less expensive cut of meat

from their Jewish neighbors.

(Didn't know that one either!!)

(That one was from history.com.)

So we have a beautiful cabbage

as part of our centerpiece.

(with very non-Irish script!)

Whether I am Irish or not,

I am going to have a little fun

with St. Patrick's Day and now

I am going to enjoy it even more.

I will be posting this with

Tablescapes Thursday

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