About 150,000 are expected to attend San Diego\u2019s 29th annual St. Patrick\u2019s Day parade, which launches at 11 a.m. Saturday, March 14, from Sixth Avenue at Laurel Street in Balboa Park\u2019s west end. That\u2019s about one San Diegan in nine, or the population of Imperial County, our region\u2019s next-door neighbor. Impressive indeed, that figure \u2013 if Pat were with us today, he\u2019d likely choke up at the thought of it. And since San Diego\u2019s fete is only one of about a million such events nationwide, he should have plenty of moral support to draw from until next year\u2019s crop of parades rolls around, even as he\u2019s been dead for more than 1,500 years. But amid his spiritualist fervor, Ireland\u2019s patron saint and figurehead would be the first to tell you that nothing is as it seems. And his story itself would appear to bear that out. Records say he was born in Wales or Scotland, not Ireland, under the name Maewyn Succat. Some reflect he died in AD 461; others show he checked out as late as 493. He\u2019s credited with banishing snakes from the island, yet postglacial Ireland probably never had any snakes on it. The rest of the world thinks of him as a lifelong devout Christian, but he was totally into pagan rituals for the first 16 years of his life. That last part weighs heavily in the balance as Pat\u2019s feast day nears \u2014 seems a wee bit o\u2019 the Wiccan colors this lore, and according to several historical sources, the shade isn\u2019t exactly green. The snakes that St. Patrick supposedly drove out of Ireland weren\u2019t snakes at all. At the time, the snake was merely a pagan symbol, and Pat is credited with the era\u2019s most sweeping conversion of pagans to Christianity. But this reform isn\u2019t something he accomplished by himself \u2014 Christianity was getting to be pretty de rigueur in fifth-century Western Europe, and it took a large contingent of Roman missionaries to make it that way. Even then, they had to configure their teachings to fit ancient Irish traditions, which were awash in gods and pagan beliefs. Enter St. Patrick, supposedly the best public speaker of the bunch. He landed a particularly effective gig in Munster province one day, snatching up a three-leaf clover and explaining that each appendage symbolized one member of the Blessed Trinity. Little did he know that the pagans had beaten him to it \u2014 for them, the leaves represented the iconic Triple Goddess and her traits of love, wisdom and fertility. The day\u2019s greatest orator had been scooped by a three-headed pagan figure. In the process, the coveted clover would lose the preponderance of religious luster he was so hoping to promote. You\u2019ll reportedly find many modern Wiccans staging a subtle protest on March 17, the Roman Catholic Church\u2019s official day of reflection on Pat\u2019s life \u2014 they might wear a little snake pin or an upside-down clover to mark the date that he supposedly converted Ireland\u2019s pagans. But some take quiet satisfaction in the Church\u2019s practice. After all, the clover has a deep spiritual meaning for them, too. And if it hadn\u2019t been for St. Patrick\u2019s efforts, the world might look at the little symbol as just another weed. While we\u2019re at it, let\u2019s not forget Ostara, the pagan feast that ushers in the spring equinox. This year, it takes place on March 20, only three days after the rest of the world toasts Pat for the trillionth time. It\u2019s been hailed as a day of rebirth and plenitude for many, many centuries, with Christianity\u2019s own such holiday \u2014 Easter, whose name is derived from Ostara \u2014 a relatively new concept over time. Happenstances like that make religious lore the fascinating social science it is. Think about that as you top off that Guinness next week. An extremely fine line separates two sides of modern religious thought, and St. Patrick\u2019s Day makes an ideal case in point. \u2014Martin Westlin is the editor of San Diego Downtown News, a sister publication.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
About 150,000 are expected to attend San Diego\u2019s 29th annual St. Patrick\u2019s Day parade, which launches at 11 a.m. Saturday, March 14, from Sixth Avenue at Laurel Street in Balboa Park\u2019s west end. That\u2019s about one San Diegan in nine, or the population of Imperial County, our region\u2019s next-door neighbor. Impressive indeed, that figure \u2013 […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11560","_seopress_titles_title":"Paganism treads fine line on St. Pat\u2019s Day","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11560,11593,11552],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-299020","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-la-jolla-village-news","category-no-images","category-opinion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299020","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=299020"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299020\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=299020"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=299020"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=299020"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}