What is St. Patrick's Day?

247,735 views ・ 2014-03-15

English with Ronnie


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

00:02
Happy St. Patrick's Day. This is a beer. It's called Guinness. It's from Ireland. There's
0
2671
15877
00:18
another thing that I'd like to teach you about something from Ireland. It's called St. Patrick's
1
18580
9710
00:28
Day. It happens every March 17th. This year is 2014. On March 17th, 2014, there's going
2
28329
13358
00:41
to be a lot of drinking. There's going to be a lot of parties. There's going to be a
3
41730
5390
00:47
lot of parades and festivals. Why? Okay. "Why is Ronnie wearing green again? Why is she
4
47120
11493
00:58
wearing a green wig? Why is she wearing a green shirt? Why does her shirt say 'fek'?
5
58650
4772
01:03
What does that mean?" Let me tell you. "Fek" is the Irish replacement word for a very naughty
6
63915
7234
01:11
word called "f*ck". So instead of saying "f*ck", you could say "fek". It's really cool, and
7
71149
6220
01:17
nobody thinks you're saying a bad word except for the people that know.
8
77369
5788
01:23
So a little bit of history for you about St. Patrick. St. Patrick, apparently, was a real
9
83173
8193
01:31
person. And he was the saint of Ireland. Now, the funny thing is that we don't know exactly
10
91374
12836
01:44
when he was born. There are a lot of historical errors about his life. What I have read -- some
11
104249
10894
01:55
rumors. For sure, he is the saint of Ireland.
12
115174
4682
01:59
Now, this is how you spell "Ireland" in Irish Gaelic. I cannot say it properly. I think
13
119895
8133
02:08
it sounds like "aija". I do not speak Irish Gaelic. I do apologize. But this is how they
14
128080
7967
02:16
spell "Ireland" in Ireland. This is the name of it. So St. Patrick is the patron saint
15
136090
8642
02:24
of Ireland.
16
144810
1694
02:26
March 17th, funnily enough, represents the day of his death. So we are not 100 percent
17
146847
8593
02:35
sure when the guy was born. But apparently, they know he died March 17th -- I don't know
18
155470
7573
02:43
the year; it's not important. What is really important about St. Patrick and St. Patrick's
19
163060
6550
02:49
Day -- especially St. Patrick -- is he marks the begins of Christianity in Ireland. Now,
20
169610
10550
03:00
Christianity is a kind of religion. There are two main parts of Christianity, Catholic
21
180191
6619
03:06
and Protestant. In Ireland, Catholic and Protestant people are always fighting but they have the
22
186810
7873
03:14
same religion. I don't understand it either.
23
194730
5700
03:20
So in Northern Ireland and Ireland -- or the southern part of Ireland -- Newfoundland or
24
200430
9365
03:29
Newfoundland, which is in Canada, and Labrador, a province in Canada, and also in the tiny
25
209830
7247
03:37
Caribbean island of Montserrat, we celebrate St. Patrick's Day. And it's a public holiday.
26
217085
8321
03:45
That means you don't have to go to work, and you can spend all day partying and drinking
27
225468
7399
03:52
and wearing green. Doesn't this sound like a great holiday? I live in Ontario. Unfortunately,
28
232891
9463
04:02
St. Patrick's Day is not a public holiday. I have to go to work unless it's a weekend.
29
242374
9119
04:12
What do we do on St. Patrick's Day? We drink. We drink a lot. Now, I was interested as to
30
252459
9204
04:21
why on St. Patrick's Day people drank. And the answer is because of this thing called
31
261769
8771
04:30
"lent". Now, "lent" is the six weeks leading up to Easter. Easter happens in either March
32
270611
9255
04:39
or April depending on where it lies in the calendar. And lent is six weeks where people
33
279930
7573
04:47
will give up one thing that is a luxury. For example, if you really, really like chocolate,
34
287970
9327
04:57
you will give up chocolate for lent. If you really, really love beer, you will not drink
35
297924
7236
05:05
beer -- [laughs] yeah right! You will not drink beer for six weeks -- not going to happen.
36
305190
6445
05:11
St. Patrick's Day happens to fall smack-dab in the middle of lent. So for one day, you
37
311674
7836
05:19
can drink, eat, feast, party as much as you want, and we're not going to tell anyone.
38
319530
8300
05:27
So the reason why people drink so much -- only on March 17th -- is it's because the one day
39
327916
7710
05:35
during lent, the restrictions, or the rules, have been banished, which means you can do
40
335673
6357
05:42
whatever you want.
41
342030
2073
05:46
In your city, in your country, do you have a St. Patrick's Day celebration? When I was
42
346033
7875
05:53
living in Japan in Tokyo, I went to the St. Patrick's Day parade. I drank a lot of beer
43
353919
5701
05:59
on the street. It was great. Some people wear a lot of green. Some people don't wear green.
44
359620
6510
06:06
You do not have to wear green. You can wear whatever you want.
45
366169
4125
06:10
One interesting ironic thing that I think about St. Patrick himself if history is correct
46
370364
8622
06:19
is that he was not even born in Ireland. He was born in Roman England, I think known today
47
379110
6660
06:25
as Wales. He's not even Irish. He was born in Wales.
48
385770
5511
06:31
Now, how did he get to Ireland? What happened there? The legend has it that St. Patrick
49
391313
7995
06:39
was captured by Irish pirates, and he was taken as a slave to Ireland. Whilst in Ireland
50
399370
11361
06:50
as a slave, he had a vision from God that he would be a really cool guy and make us
51
410790
8051
06:58
drink on St. Patrick's Day. He had a vision from God that he would help people around
52
418892
6868
07:05
the world and be a saint. So he became free magically, went back to where he was from,
53
425760
7000
07:13
went back to England, and brought Christianity to people in Ireland.
54
433051
6243
07:19
That's my crazy little story about St. Patrick's Day. How about you celebrate St. Patrick's
55
439356
7294
07:26
Day -- you tell me your crazy little story about St. Patrick's Day. Sláinte!
56
446650
5674

Original video on YouTube.com
About this website

This site will introduce you to YouTube videos that are useful for learning English. You will see English lessons taught by top-notch teachers from around the world. Double-click on the English subtitles displayed on each video page to play the video from there. The subtitles scroll in sync with the video playback. If you have any comments or requests, please contact us using this contact form.

https://forms.gle/WvT1wiN1qDtmnspy7