St. Patrick's Day
March 17th St. Patrick's Day is celebrated by the Irish and Irish at Heart in big cities and small towns alike with parades, "wearing of the green," music and songs, Irish food and drink, and activities for kids such as crafts, colouring and games.
March is the month when things really start to move in the growing season, in fact the start of the year used to be The Feast of the Annunciation, 25th March until 1752 in Britain when we adopted the Gregorian calendar and started our year on the 1st January. Now is the time to harvest any leeks that are left standing, you can freeze them for use in soups and stews. Parsnips too should come up in early March before they start to re-grow. You may have spinach beet and chards available, the last of the late Brussels sprouts, winter cauliflowers, kale, swedes, salsify and scorzonera. Don't forget to keep checking the purple sprouting! General Jobs in the Garden include a good tidy up, and you should finish those odd construction jobs because you’re going to be busier still later in the year. A good idea right now is to peg out your horticultural fleece, a week or so before you plant. The small rise in temperature of the soil can make a big difference. Sowing, Planting and Cultivating If the weather permits you can plant your onion and shallot sets. March is usually the right time to establish an asparagus bed if you are starting from crowns. Mid March should let you start planting those early potatoes, and talking of root crops, you can plant Jerusalem artichoke tubers now. Other things to Sow this month are: •Beetroot •Broad Beans •Early Peas (but they may do best started in a gutter in the greenhouse then slipped into a trench) •Brussels sprouts – early varieties like Peer Gynt will be ready in September. •Kohl Rabi •Leeks •Lettuce •Radish •Parsnips •Spinach Beet •Early Turnips There is still time to finish planting bare rooted fruit trees and bushes, especially raspberries and cane fruits.
Its a time for fun and some communities even go so far as to dye rivers or streams green. The first St. Patrick's Day parade took place not in Ireland but in the United States. Irish soldiers serving in the English military marched through New York City on March 17, 1762. Along with their music, the parade helped the soldiers reconnect with their Irish roots, as well as fellow Irishmen serving in the English army. Over the next 35 years, Irish patriotism among American immigrants flourished, prompting the rise of so-called "Irish Aid" societies like the Friendly Sons of Saint Patrick and the Hibernian Society. Each group would hold annual parades featuring bagpipes (which actually first became popular in the Scottish and British armies) and drums. In 1848, several New York Irish Aid societies decided to unite their parades to form one New York City St. Patrick's Day Parade. Today, that parade is the world 's oldest civilian parade and the largest in the United States, with over 150,000 participants. Each year, nearly three million people line the 1.5-mile parade route to watch the procession, which takes more than five hours. Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia and Savannah also celebrate the day with parades involving between 10,000 and 20,000 participants Chicago is famous for a somewhat peculiar annual event: dyeing the Chicago River green. The tradition started in 1962, when city pollution-control workers used dyes to trace illegal sewage discharges and realized that the green dye might provide a unique way to celebrate the holiday. That year, they released 100 pounds of green vegetable dye into the river— enough to keep it green for a week The colour traditionally associated with St. Patrick was blue, not green. The Leprechaun. The original Irish name for these figures of folklore is "lobaircin," meaning "small-bodied fellow." Belief in leprechauns probably stems from Celtic belief in fairies, tiny men and women who could use their magical powers to serve good or evil. In Celtic folktales, leprechauns were cranky souls, responsible for mending the shoes of the other fairies. Though only minor figures in Celtic folklore, leprechauns were known for their trickery, which they often used to protect their much-fabled treasure The shamrock, which was also called the "seamroy" by the Celts, was a sacred plant in ancient Ireland because it symbolized the rebirth of spring. By the seventeenth century, the shamrock had become a symbol of emerging Irish nationalism. As the English began to seize Irish land and make laws against the use of the Irish language and the practice of Catholicism, many Irish began to wear the shamrock as a symbol of their pride in their heritage and their displeasure with English rule. We have introduced a few Irish jokes throughout these pages as a tribute to a nation who love “The Craic.” We do not intend this to be misconstrued as racist as suggested by one reader the last time we did an Irish joke. Have a great St Patrick’s Day.
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