St. Patrick's Day in New Jersey

Streets in the cities in New Jersey will be turning green all over during the month of March. St. Patrick's Day is a celebration honoring the patron saint of Ireland. St. Patrick was born more than 1600 years ago. He was taking into captured at the age of 16 and taken to Ireland for a life of slavery. turned to God for comfort. Eventually, he was able to escape his captors, became a priest and went to study in a French monastery.

From there, he was sent to Ireland as a bishop. Patrick's began his 30 year project of converting the Irish to Christianity. The legend of St. Patrick is that he drove the snakes from Ireland. However, Ireland is an island without snakes. There were probably never any snakes in Ireland. Instead, the snakes of legend, were likely symbolic of the pagans that he converted to Christianity. Snakes had been a symbol of evil since the story of the Garden of Eden in the Bible Book of Genesis.

The Shamrock is also connected to a legend of Patrick. The legend is that Patrick used the Shamrock to explain the Holy Trinity of The God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, to the Irish. The shamrock has been associated with St. Patrick and the Irish people ever since. Today 93% of Ireland is Catholic.

The St. Patrick's celebrations in the U.S.A. honor the Irish immigrants who were an important part of our nation's heritage. Many people do not really understand the historic, religious roots of the holiday, seeing it as an opportunity to drink green beer and eat corned beef and cabbage. Irish and non-Irish alike will be out and about, wearing green and partying with leprechauns. There are 22 parades, over a 3 week time period, in the State of New Jersey. They will vary in size, but they will have have music, floats, politicians and an assortment of festivities. Here are the dates and times of the various parades.: