Zibiah Loakthar, our Cuimhne Coordinator writes:
St Patrick’s Day celebrations and gatherings may be treasured memories for many people. For volunteers, care staff and family and friends of people living with dementia, St Patrick’s day may be a happy memory topic to explore with many people this time of year. People may be able to recall parties and festivities, parades, foods, decorations, preparations, costumes.
As ever it is good to tread with sensitivity when opening up a topic to discuss and explore. Not everyone may have the same feelings about St Patrick’s day; not everyone will have a bunch of happy memories to connect with around this day. Our Irish community is diverse; not everyone holds the same religious beliefs or attitudes.
Still, bearing this caution in mind, St Patrick’s Day may be a very fruitful topic for reminiscence!
How much do you know about St Patrick’s Day? Take our true and false quiz to find out!
St Patrick’s Day was made an official Christian feast day in the early 17th century.
St Patrick’s Day can also be celebrated by people who do not identify themselves as religious.
The real St Patrick was born outside of Ireland.
St Patrick is said to have died on 17 March and this is the day that St Patrick’s day is celebrated.
St Patrick is said to have been buried at Downpatrick, about 22 miles away from Belfast.
St Patrick's Day has been an official public holiday in Ireland for more than 100 years
Whilst these days on Saint Patrick's Day there is a tradition to wear the colour green, the 5th-century saint's official colour was "Saint Patrick's blue," which is a light shade of sky blue.
On St Patrick’s Day it is common for people to wear a three leaved shamrock.
St Patrick's Day is celebrated in different parts of the world including the United States, Canada, Australia, Montserrat, South Korea, Japan, Lithuania and Switzerland.
Sometimes rivers and fountains are dyed green to celebrate St Patrick’s day, as happened to the Trafalgar Square fountain in London in 2008.