St. Patrick’s Day is part of Chicago’s identity every year. The Chicago River is dyed green, there are parades throughout the city, and bars are overcrowded. This is all fun and dandy, but what is really being celebrated? If it’s Irish culture, but the holiday isn’t called Irish Celebration Day, it’s called St. Patrick’s day, named for St. Patrick, the Patron of Ireland.

Celebrating Irish history, culture, language, and the large Irish community in Chicago is great, but St. Patrick should never be celebrated. St. Patrick was not even Irish; he was British.

Many people have a common misconception that he chased out all of the snakes in Ireland. Snakes never existed in Ireland, due to its surrounding waters preventing migration. The only thing St. Patrick chased out were the native Irish people. He harassed and drove out anyone who did not convert and assimilate to the new Irish ways, especially those who were pagan.

In many ways, he’s like another murderer who is celebrated, Christopher Columbus. He brought smallpox upon millions of innocent natives, enslaved anyone who survived, and effectively ruined whole civilizations. Columbus did not even discover America. Amerigo Vespucci and the Vikings did.

Columbus Day and St. Patrick’s Day should never be celebrated again if the goal is to honor those two people.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/03/090316-st-patricks-day-facts.html

http://www.pagancentric.org/pagans-and-saint-patricks-day/