圣帕特里克節十大趣聞

2012-03-16 14:54

Celebrating St Patrick's Day in London(Photo: ALAMY. Agencies)

St Patrick's Day is being celebrated by Irish communities around the world. Here we list 10 fascinating facts about the celebration of Ireland's patron saint:

1. St. Patrick is the patron saint of Ireland, although he was born in Britain, around 385AD. His parents Calpurnius and Conchessa were Roman citizens living in either Scotland or Wales, according to different versions of his story.

2. As a boy of 14 he was captured and taken to Ireland where he spent six years in slavery herding sheep. He returned to Ireland in his 30s as a missionary among the Celtic pagans.

3. Legend has it that he used the native shamrock as a symbol of the holy trinity when preaching and brought the Latin alphabet to Ireland.

4. Miracles attributed to him include the driving of serpents out of Ireland. However, evidence suggests post-glacial Ireland never had any snakes in the first place.

5. Wearing green, eating green food and even drinking green beer, is said to commemorate St Patrick's use of the shamrock - although blue was the original colour of his vestments.

6. St Patrick was said to have proclaimed that everyone should have a drop of the "hard stuff" on his feast day after chastising an innkeeper who served a short measure of whiskey. In the custom known as "drowning the shamrock", the shamrock that has been worn on a lapel or hat is put in the last drink of the evening.

7. Popular Irish toasts on St Patrick's Day, include: may the roof above us never fall in, and may we friends beneath it never fall out.

8. St. Patrick's Day was first celebrated in America in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1737. Around 34 million modern Americans claim Irish ancestry.

9. It is believed that St Patrick died on March 17 in 461AD. It is a national holiday in Ireland, and on the island of Montserrat in the Caribbean, which was founded by Irish refugees. It is a bank holiday in Northern Ireland and a provincial holiday in the Canadian province of Newfoundland.

10. Dublin has a parade that attracts hundreds of thousands of people, while in Chicago the river is dyed green for a few hours. The biggest parade is normally held in New York, while the largest celebration in the southern hemisphere is in Sydney, Australia.

點擊查看更多雙語新聞

(Agencies)

圣帕特里克節（St. Patrick's Day）是每年的3月17日，是為了紀念愛爾蘭守護神圣帕特里克。這一節日5世紀末期起源于愛爾蘭，如今已成為愛爾蘭的國慶節。隨著愛爾蘭后裔遍布世界各地，現在，圣帕特里克節已經漸漸在一些國家成為節日。

圣帕特里克節是全世界愛爾蘭團體都在慶賀的節日。下面是關于節日慶祝的10個有趣事實。

1. 雖然是在公元385年前后出生在不列顛島，但圣帕特里克是愛爾蘭的守護神。根據不同版本的歷史記載，他的父母卡爾普爾尼烏斯和孔切薩是居住在蘇格蘭或者威爾士的羅馬公民。

2. 14歲時，圣帕特里克被捕并被帶往愛爾蘭，在那里他作為奴隸牧羊6年。三十多歲時，圣帕特里克作為凱爾特異教徒傳教士回到愛爾蘭。

3. 傳說他在傳教時使用當地的三葉草作為神圣的三位一體的象征，并且把拉丁字母表介紹到愛爾蘭。

4. 圣帕特里克成功將大毒蛇趕出愛爾蘭的傳說增加了他的傳奇色彩。然而證據顯示愛爾蘭在冰河期以后從沒有過蛇。

5. 據說身穿綠色服裝，吃綠色食物，甚至喝綠色啤酒是為了紀念圣帕特里克使用三葉草，盡管他的法衣最初是藍色。

6. 據說圣帕特里克曾訓斥了一位賣威士忌缺斤短兩的酒館老板。此后圣帕特里克聲明每個人在他的宗教節日都應該喝一滴“烈性酒”。因此在“淹沒三葉草”這個眾所周知的習俗中，節日里戴在西服翻領或者帽子上的三葉草最后會被放在酒里作為晚上最后一飲。

7. 愛爾蘭圣帕特里克節的流行祝酒語包括：愿頭上屋頂不倒，屋下朋友不分。

8. 美國馬薩諸塞州的波士頓于1737年首次慶祝圣帕特里克節。大約3400萬現代美國人自認為是愛爾蘭后裔。