I Don't Like To Be Pinched On St. Patrick's Day! (And a History of The Pinching)

I don't know about you, but I hate being pinched! I bruise so easily, it's painful and annoying. I can remember in grade school my mom always made sure that I was wearing green on St. Patrick's Day so that I wouldn't be pinched. It didn't matter how much green I wore, I was still pinched. I could wear all green clothing, paint my toenails green and dye my hair green and children would still find a reason to pinch me.

Consequences?

Nowadays a child that pinches in school would end up in prison. Okay, I am kidding about that, but schools now have the "No Tolerance" rules, and they are a little ridiculous in some cases. I guess you can't be too careful with the world like it is today. I am really glad that we live in a small town and that my children go to a school with only 14 kids from K-8. It's a completely different environment than going to a big school.

This morning one of my sons pinched my other son because he took his green off for a minute, I was immediately taken back to those days where I was pinched all day long. I had a talk with them and explained that pinching for any reason was not appropriate. Of course I know they are just having fun, but just like the schools these days have "No Tolerance" rules, I have "Hands Off" rules. In my house someone always ends up getting hurt, so to minimize this it's just better if there is a hands to yourself rule. If my mom would have had that rule it might have saved my sister a lot of torture. :)

A Mothers advice to the preventing of the pinching

So I sent my kids off to school this morning head to toe in green hoping to save them the pain of being pinched, just in case the "No Tolerance" rule doesn't count on St. Patrick's Day. Also it's fun to dress in green on the one day a year that everyone else is too, it brings people together in a way. Just a little note to mothers out there, in my experience it's best to bring the green out the day before, that way when they change their mind a thousand times on which green to wear you will be well prepared the morning of. :)

A Little History

St. Patrick's day is celebrated every March 17th. It is named after the most commonly recognized patron Saint in Ireland, St. Patrick. It began as a Catholic holiday in the early 1600's. It became a public holiday in Ireland in 1903 as it gradually turned into a holiday to celebrate the culture of Ireland. It is celebrated not only in Ireland but in many other places such as, The United States, Canada, Great Britain, Australia, Argentina, New Zealand, and Montserrat.

The original color associated to St. Patrick was blue but in the 1700's the color association to St. Patrick changed to green. It is said that he used the shamrock to explain the Holy Trinity to pre-christian Irish. So from then on people wore shamrocks or green on their clothing.

The Reason For Pinching

It is said that in the 1700's in Boston, in the Massachusetts colony people thought that if you wore green you were invisible to the leprechauns. (see: what is a leprechaun) They said that if you didn't wear green the leprechauns could see you and they would pinch you. That is how the pinching all started. (I bet it was just some pranksters wanting a reason to pinch) Just kidding......or am I?

What Is A Leprechaun?

A Leprechaun is a type of fairy in Irish Folklore that takes the shape of a very small old man wearing a red or green coat and loves mischief, practical jokes, ale, and most of all gold. The Leprechauns are said to hide their crocks of gold at the end of the rainbow.

Celebration in the United States

In 1780, General George Washington, who commanded soldiers of Irish descent in the Continental Army, allowed his troops a holiday on 17 March “as an act of solidarity with the Irish in their fight for independence".

Since 1962 Chicago has dyed it's river green on St. Patrick's Day. Originally 100 pounds of vegetable dye was used to turn the river green for a whole week but now only forty pounds of dye is used and lasts for several hours. Indianapolis dyes it's main canal green, Savannah dyes it's downtown city fountains green, the St. Pat's Board Alumni of the Missouri University of Science and Technology paints 12 city blocks green with mops before their annual parade, in Jamestown, New York the Chadakoin River is dyed green each year, and in Washington this year the President had the water in the north and south fountains of the White House dyed green in celebration of St. Patrick's Day.

Reflection

As I sit here writing this hub in my green scarf I am reminded that it really doesn't matter what I am wearing today because I will not be leaving the house, and a cyber pinch doesn't count, and even if it did, it wouldn't hurt or leave me with a bruise anyway, lucky me!

So have fun this St. Patrick's Day and remember to drink and pinch responsibly.