Feast of St Patrick

St. Patrick (ca. A.D. 385-461) was born -- in Scotland! He was the son of a high-ranking Roman family, but was carried off into slavery by Irish marauders when he was 16 and forced into shepherding. While in captivity in Ireland, though, he learned Celtic and the ways of Druidism, as his master was a Druid High Priest, two bits of knowledge that would help him later in evangelizing Irish pagans. He escaped his master, travelled about a bit -- but desired to return to Ireland to evangelize, a task he was entrusted with by Pope Celestine I, and a task he was most successful at (legend says that he even drove the snakes from that land with a sermon).

Needless to say, St. Patrick is very dear to the Irish people. The symbol of this day is the shamrock because St. Patrick used the plant as a visual aid in describing the Trinity -- three leaves, one stem -- and the Cross, which is evoked by its general shape.

Patron: Ireland; against snakes; against ophidiophobia; archdiocese of Boston, Massachusetts; diocese of Burlington, Vermont; engineers; excluded people; fear of snakes; diocese of Fort Worth, Texas; diocese of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; archdiocese of New York; Nigeria; diocese of Norwich, Connecticut; ophidiophobics; diocese of Portland, Maine; diocese of Sacramento, California; snake bites.

Symbols: A bishop trampling on snakes; bishop driving snakes away; shamrock; snakes; cross; harp; demons; baptismal font.

Liturgical Color(s): Violet (in Lent); White (when celebrated as a solemnity)
Type of Holiday: Commemoration; Holy Day of Obligation and Solemnity (in Ireland only)
Time of Year: March 17
Duration: One Day
Celebrates/Symbolizes: The Life and Spirituality of Saint Patrick
Alternate Names: Saint Paddy's Day

Traditions and Customs of St Patricks Day
Wearing Green Clothing
Eating Green food/drink
Eating Corned Beef and Cabbage (in the U.S.)
Having Irish-themed celebrations

Our 2009 St Patrick's Day Celebration. I had only just started blogging. I can't believe it has gone so fast!!
Our 2010 Plans~
Everyone will be required to wear green for the day.We will do some face painting again and some of the activities form the resources listed below.
Definitely we will play Irish music. I Love Irish and Celtic music and we may even do an Irish Jig.
It is a given that we will read some great books( look in my sidebar) and play A great game from Anne at Under her Starry Mantle- Pin the Shamrock on St Patrick
Perhaps if we are lucky we may be able to get a DVD on St Patrick from the Library or Video Shop (if we are very lucky) other wise we will watch the one we did last year.

For More information:
Fisheaters
ChurchYear.Net
Catholic Culture
littleshamrocks.com

Great Ideas to keep you busy:
Lacy at Catholic Icing has a HEAP of great ideas form some of our favourite Bloggers

Paper Dali has some lovely little Blessing note cards that you can give to others or as we are you can print and laminate them and save them as Feast Day memories.
We have a whole box full each of the feast day souvenirs we have kept. I try to make a special item for the major feasts we celebrate.
Vee also has a complete mini unit study along with a lovely colouring page of St Patrick

Erin has some great links at Faith Filled Days too.

Notebooking pages for writing
Free study from Currclick
Currclick again St Patrick
Squidoo Lapbook
Homeschool Helper Lapbook
Homeschool Share Lapbook and another from Homeschool Share

abcteach has a wide variety of easy pages for little ones especially
atozteacherstuff- has colouring pages, word search, crosswords and more
enchantedlearning also has so much to choose from
surfnetkids- I haen't checkd this one out fully but it looks OK on the surface

Colouring pages from activityvillage
DLTK ha some activities as well
parenting.leehansen has a few ideas
free printable St Patrick's Day lessons
heap of links on squidoo
Charlotte linked to this great colouring page- it is beautiful.
Charlotte also has a great healthy Irish flag. The younger children loved it and wanted it for lunch. Next year guys.

For those of you who like clipart like me - this is a very good page to look at
Food Ideas:
Last year we made these delightful little Shamrock Mint Cupcakes from Catholic Cuisine.
We also made the Irish Meat and Guinness Stew but the children found it a little bitter.
St Patrick Recipes are here

So this year we will make our own version of Irish Stew. We eat this a lot and usually have Yorkshire pudding with it but for St Patrick's day we will have the Irish Soda bread we have always made as well.

I am also planning on making some little Shamrock cookies using a heart cookie cutter. I will just cut out 3 or 4 heart shapes (you have to have a four leaf clover for good luck).
Then put the point of the hearts in the centre and you have a Shamrock shape, add a little stem if you like.
Then give a light coating with milk and sprinkle on some green jelly crystals for a lovely green look.
The recipe I will use is either our Gingerbread one or our Sugar Cookie recipe.

Another Irish food site ( there are a huge variety of ideas here) is littleshamrocks.com.
Irish Stew:
This is a large recipe that feeds our family of 13 for 2 meals
2 1/2 kilos of gravy beef ( I find this is much more tender than stewing steak)
at least 1 potato for each person
4 sweet potatoes
8 carrots cut into small pieces
2 onions ( I often don't add this due to our older boys who don't like onion)
any other veges you want to add.
250grams of dried apricots (not the Turkish ones)
250-500grams of dried pitted prunes
1/2 jar of fruit chutney
garlic powder
onion powder
chicken stock
flour, salt and pepper.

Method~
cut gravy beef into chunks and coat with the flour that has salt and pepper mixed through.
Put into large cauldron
add cut up veges and dried fruits and seasonings.
cover with water and put INTO oven (NOT on top of stove)
Cook until done stirring periodically.

NB. The more flour you coat the meat with the thicker the gravy for the stew.
If it isn't thick enough when cooked just add a little cornflour to some water in a separate container, mix to a thick paste and pour into stew (now on top of stove) and stir until thickened.

Originally when we were a smaller family I could cook this in our crock pot. So if you cut down quantities it will fit into a standard crock pot.
Irish Soda Bread:
4 1/2 cups of plain flour
3 TBSP of soft butter
2 cups of sultanas
2 cups of buttermilk (if you don't have buttermilk at 2 TBS of lemon juice to the milk)
2 tsp of baking powder
1tsp of salt (we don't add this)
1/4 cup of sugar

Mix butter with flour with finger tips until well blended.
Mix the rest of the dry ingredients including sultanas together.
Add buttermilk "bit by bit" until dry ingredients are mixed in (mixture will be sticky)
Flour hands a little and knead until mixture is held together.
Divide into 2 loaves
Make into round loaves and cut a cross in the center
Bake in hot oven for about 35-45 mins until golden brown.

And after dinner to finish off a great Celebration of one of our favourite saints.
We will ( older people) have a drink of this

and all of us have a taste of these.
Prayers:
Lorica of St Patrick at ewtn
ChurchYear.Net--a few St Patrick Prayers
I pray you all have a very blessed St Patrick's Day ♥

**Just a little note to self: put post in word doc so you wont't lose it 2 times completely just as you are about to publish.
Me a slow learner.

Blessings,