What is St. Patrick's Day?

247,676 views ・ 2014-03-15

English with Ronnie


Please double-click on the English subtitles below to play the video.

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Happy St. Patrick's Day. This is a beer. It's called Guinness. It's from Ireland. There's
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another thing that I'd like to teach you about something from Ireland. It's called St. Patrick's
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Day. It happens every March 17th. This year is 2014. On March 17th, 2014, there's going
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to be a lot of drinking. There's going to be a lot of parties. There's going to be a
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lot of parades and festivals. Why? Okay. "Why is Ronnie wearing green again? Why is she
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wearing a green wig? Why is she wearing a green shirt? Why does her shirt say 'fek'?
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What does that mean?" Let me tell you. "Fek" is the Irish replacement word for a very naughty
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word called "f*ck". So instead of saying "f*ck", you could say "fek". It's really cool, and
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nobody thinks you're saying a bad word except for the people that know.
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So a little bit of history for you about St. Patrick. St. Patrick, apparently, was a real
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person. And he was the saint of Ireland. Now, the funny thing is that we don't know exactly
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when he was born. There are a lot of historical errors about his life. What I have read -- some
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rumors. For sure, he is the saint of Ireland.
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Now, this is how you spell "Ireland" in Irish Gaelic. I cannot say it properly. I think
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it sounds like "aija". I do not speak Irish Gaelic. I do apologize. But this is how they
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spell "Ireland" in Ireland. This is the name of it. So St. Patrick is the patron saint
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of Ireland.
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March 17th, funnily enough, represents the day of his death. So we are not 100 percent
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sure when the guy was born. But apparently, they know he died March 17th -- I don't know
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the year; it's not important. What is really important about St. Patrick and St. Patrick's
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Day -- especially St. Patrick -- is he marks the begins of Christianity in Ireland. Now,
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Christianity is a kind of religion. There are two main parts of Christianity, Catholic
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and Protestant. In Ireland, Catholic and Protestant people are always fighting but they have the
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same religion. I don't understand it either.
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So in Northern Ireland and Ireland -- or the southern part of Ireland -- Newfoundland or
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Newfoundland, which is in Canada, and Labrador, a province in Canada, and also in the tiny
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Caribbean island of Montserrat, we celebrate St. Patrick's Day. And it's a public holiday.
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That means you don't have to go to work, and you can spend all day partying and drinking
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and wearing green. Doesn't this sound like a great holiday? I live in Ontario. Unfortunately,
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St. Patrick's Day is not a public holiday. I have to go to work unless it's a weekend.
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What do we do on St. Patrick's Day? We drink. We drink a lot. Now, I was interested as to
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why on St. Patrick's Day people drank. And the answer is because of this thing called
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"lent". Now, "lent" is the six weeks leading up to Easter. Easter happens in either March
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or April depending on where it lies in the calendar. And lent is six weeks where people
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will give up one thing that is a luxury. For example, if you really, really like chocolate,
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you will give up chocolate for lent. If you really, really love beer, you will not drink
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beer -- [laughs] yeah right! You will not drink beer for six weeks -- not going to happen.
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St. Patrick's Day happens to fall smack-dab in the middle of lent. So for one day, you
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can drink, eat, feast, party as much as you want, and we're not going to tell anyone.
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So the reason why people drink so much -- only on March 17th -- is it's because the one day
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during lent, the restrictions, or the rules, have been banished, which means you can do
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whatever you want.
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In your city, in your country, do you have a St. Patrick's Day celebration? When I was
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living in Japan in Tokyo, I went to the St. Patrick's Day parade. I drank a lot of beer
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on the street. It was great. Some people wear a lot of green. Some people don't wear green.
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You do not have to wear green. You can wear whatever you want.
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One interesting ironic thing that I think about St. Patrick himself if history is correct
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is that he was not even born in Ireland. He was born in Roman England, I think known today
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as Wales. He's not even Irish. He was born in Wales.
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Now, how did he get to Ireland? What happened there? The legend has it that St. Patrick
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was captured by Irish pirates, and he was taken as a slave to Ireland. Whilst in Ireland
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as a slave, he had a vision from God that he would be a really cool guy and make us
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drink on St. Patrick's Day. He had a vision from God that he would help people around
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the world and be a saint. So he became free magically, went back to where he was from,
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went back to England, and brought Christianity to people in Ireland.
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That's my crazy little story about St. Patrick's Day. How about you celebrate St. Patrick's
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Day -- you tell me your crazy little story about St. Patrick's Day. Sláinte!
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