Wearing Orange on St. Patrick’s Day: Go Ahead and Pinch Me
This St. Patrick’s Day you’re likely to take part in that time honored tradition of wearing green. If not, you risk punishment-by-pinch, an especially popular custom on schoolyards and around office water coolers. Thus, wearing green on St. Patrick’s Day is not only widely practiced, it’s virtually required. It’s hard to imagine the holiday without green.
But for a growing number of people, taking part in the fun means wearing orange. According to this increasingly popular tradition, Protestants wear orange, and the green clothing attire is left to Catholics. Thus, the color you wear is actually dependent on your religious denomination. Admittedly, this color tradition is not well known, but it has deep roots in Irish history.
Protestant Irish have been known as “orange” ever since 1690 when William of Orange (William III), the King of England, Scotland, and Ireland, defeated King James II, a Roman Catholic, in the Battle of the Boyne near Dublin. William’s victory would ensure Protestant military dominance on the island and has been a source of tension ever since. Although the “Orange” in William’s name actually referred to a province in southern France, the color reference stuck. This is why orange now appears in the Irish flag – to symbolize the Protestant minority in Ireland.
Thus, “Orange Protestants” have been around for quite a while, but wearing the color on St. Patrick’s is a relatively new phenomenon. The first group to take part in the tradition appears to have been the Orange Institution, a Protestant fraternal organization more commonly known as the Orange Order. Some members of the order wore orange in various parades on St. Patrick’s Day as a mark of defiance.
Ironically, St. Patrick himself would have been surprised by all of the fuss. Patrick wasn’t even Irish; he came to Celtic Ireland as a British missionary. But more importantly, Patrick did most of his work in the 5th century at a time when Christians were simply Christians, long before any division between Roman Catholics and Protestants.
Therefore St. Patrick belongs to the whole church, not just Rome, and people of all colors and creeds should take part in the festivities. Yet for some Protestants, part of that fun involves wearing orange. So before the green-wearing Irish among you get into a pinching craze, think twice. Some of us wear orange for a reason.
21 Responses to “Wearing Orange on St. Patrick’s Day: Go Ahead and Pinch Me”
Right there with you, Josh.
I’ve never really understood why Protestants celebrate the Feast of St. Patrick anyway. Likewise, Saint Valentine.
Though this Feast is commonly accepted as a celebration of Irishness, it’s more appropriately noted as a celebration of Catholicism, as Saint Patrick pretty much converted the whole island to the Mother Church by himself. Until Patrick, there were many people born Irish, but no one was baptised Catholic.
Related note/fun fact: if you were planning on celebrating this Feast of Saint Patrick today anyway, you missed it.
http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080317/NEWS01/778610821
One need not be Catholic to celebrate saint holidays which have been secularized, as in the case of Valentine’s Day. Many holidays were completely religious in origin and have since been partially or wholly secularized. Therefore they carry religious significance for some and not for others. Some, for instance, do not believe in a risen Jesus but still hunt Easter eggs. Others do not believe in a virgin birth but still give presents on Christmas. The important point for this discussion is that it is not black and white; there are shades of gray. For some these are religious, for some they are cultural, and for some it is both or a mixture of the two. I suspect, and hope, that I’m not telling you anything you don’t already know.
St. Patrick’s Day has become a cultural holiday much more than Christmas or Easter, and is closer to Valentine’s Day in that regard. Yet for some it is still a Catholic holiday (and on a related note, ‘Catholic’ now carries both a religious and cultural meaning). For Protestants who want to make a statement or defy its original intent, wearing orange can be a fun thing to do. Therefore it is not inconsistent to wear orange in defiance of Cathlicism and in honor of Protestantism on what has nevertheless become a largely cultural holiday.
I think on this one, we’ll have to agreeably disagree.
It is odd though, politically speaking, that the agorapolis would be a fan of the Orange Order. After all, that was an organization that fought to deny self-rule in favor of the totalitarian Crown.
But, hey. Defyment or statement making can often make strangebedfellows.
Call me a Catholic fuddy-duddy, but I think I’d rather not unduly take the religion out of Holy Days, especially when that saint might have been one of the most significant saints in the Western world. Let us not hope that Saint Patrick becomes confused with cereal-eating Leprechauns. But maybe again, I guess it’d be more fun to have it both ways. (cf. http://www.intheagora.com/archives/2007/12/reflections_on_1.html; http://www.intheagora.com/archives/2007/12/the_santa_debat.html)
While I don’t have a personal opinion on the matter, I do know that many Irish Catholics consider orange the color of oppression. I would advise caution wearing it on St. Patrick’s Day, as you might be sending a message you don’t intend.
I would also echo gjoe’s sentiment about the secularization of these holidays.
I’m wearing my orange today… and surprisingly when I went out this weekend there were quite a few others wearing orange at the bars too.
When my mother was growing up in rural Canada, her family would leave town on Orangeman’s Day, because they were the only Catholics. It wasn’t that much different when I was growing up in rural New York, except that there were more of both Catholics and Protestants, and the violence was confined to words, not arson (Grandfather’s blacksmith shop was torched).
Wearing orange on St. Patrick’s Day in an area where there are Catholics who have been harassed is not a neutral act — it is political. Think about the politics before you put on the colors, and be ready to deal with what you encounter. I wear neither color on this day.
I’ve also heard about the orange and green.
However, before we “throw out the baby with the bathwater”, let’s remember that Patrick was doing his work in the 5th century, before “Roman Catholicism”. He was converting pagans to Christianity.
According to Christianity Today’s website: “Patrick, the Catholic patron saint of the Irish, was so designated as a result of popular devotion and long-standing custom, not an official canonization process. (The Roman Catholic church has made official designation of relatively few patrons.) Also, Patrick wasn’t Irish but came to Celtic Ireland as a British missionary.”
In the new LCMS Lutheran Service Book (LSB), hymn # 604 is “I Bind unto Myself Today.â€Â
The words were written by St. Patrick in the fourth or fifth century and translated into English in the early 1800’s.
I bind unto myself the Name,
The strong Name of the Trinity,
By invocation of the same,
The Three in One and One in Three.
By Whom all nature hath creation,
Eternal Father, Spirit, Word:
Praise to the Lord of my salvation,
Salvation is of Christ the Lord.
http://necessaryroughness.org/archives/1513
Happy St Patrick (the 5th century missionary) Day
I too will be wearing orange. Not a single family member on the Irish side was catholic. Im proud of both my heratages. What does concern me is this… I have friends and family who are bi/gay. It has been brought to my attention that the color orange now can mean that you are anti-gay on St. Patricks day. I think this stems from a court ruling in NYC in the 1990’s over free speach and parades.
Uncle Jim is quite right to point out that Patrick, like most saints, belongs to the whole church, not just Rome.
FWIW, my father is a protestant from northern Ireland. We joke about wearing orange on St. Patrick’s day to commemorate “Good King Billy,” but with the understanding that to do so would be a deliberate insult, a poke in the eye to Catholic Irish. I wouldn’t actually wear it.
I think you are correct that wearing Orange is most typically associated with the Orange Order, a society with significant “sectarian, anti-Catholic, Protestant-supremacist” elements, though usually it’s worn on July 12th, not St. Patrick’s day. The entire July 12 celebration is problematic; it may be a legitimate historical and cultural celebration, but it also commemorates the defeat the celebrant’s catholic neighbors. It would be a bit like having a parade in Richmond or Atlanta to celebrate April 9.
Since in the Irish Flag white is the neutral ground between the two factions… why not start a new tradition of wearing white on St. Pats. representing the need for the two groups to mend their centuries of hate and move forward into the New World.
Don’t you get tired of hearing about the poor Irish and how they were treated. You never hear about the poor French Huguenots who were massacred on St. Bartholomew’s Day and later went into exile (Paul Revere’s family, George Washinton’s family, etc.) How about the poor Bohemian Hussites who over 3.2 million were either martyred or went into exile? Or today about the Protestants in Chamula, Chiapas, Mexico who are being persecuted. I will be wearing Orange in honor of my Grandma’s family who her mother was English/Dutch and her father whose family were Protestant Portuguese exiles from the Madeira Islands of the 1850’s where 2,000 went into exile and settled in Central Illinois.
Posted by: twistedchick at March 17, 2008 10:39 AM |
I’ve also heard about the orange and green.
However, before we “throw out the baby with the bathwater”, let’s remember that Patrick was doing his work in the 5th century, before “Roman Catholicism”. He was converting pagans to Christianity.
ANSWER:
What source are you consulting. If you examine the proponents for the Church you will find the following:
Catholic Church is the true and original Christian Church, the word “Catholic” being but an adjective. Early in Church history many sects broke off claiming to be Christian, but they were usually small cults based around a charismatic heretic and localized to a particular area. To distinguish Itself from these the Christian Church choose one of the four marks of the Church that none of these sects could simulate, Its catholicity (the fact that the Christian Church could be found everywhere) by which to identify Itself.
Christianity points to the Last Supper for its inception. Christ inaugurated the New Law by fulfilling the symbolic ceremonies and sacrifices of the Pasch and instituting in their place the sacrifice of the New Law, the Holy Mass. As well, he appointed His disciples as the new ordained priesthood over the hereditary ministers of the Old Law. He also set up Himself up as the new high priest, with St. Peter to represent Him on earth in that capacity when He would ascend. Christ built an entire institution with hierarchy, ceremonies and doctrine. However, it was merely in place and not effective. When Christ died upon the cross, the foundation for the New Law which He had laid became effective by virtue of His blood and the redemption He effected. Upon His resurrection, He activated Peter’s primacy as well as giving the Church its mission to go and preach to all nations. Christianity/Catholicism was born then, 37AD, the date Christ died (the exact date of Christ’s death is disputed, but 37AD is often referenced).
There is the position that Catholicism was a highly regulated form of Christianity which departed from Christ’s beginnings. In 325, the First Council of Nicaea met and hammered out many of the irregularities in Christianity, forming a canon of doctrine and disciplines that were then imposed upon the Christian faithful. Some people insist that this council was when Catholicism, if not Christianity, was invented and the actual teachings of Christ were not preserved in their integrity. This view is difficult to defend since all that authoritatively existed was Oral Tradition handed down since the New Testament, though written, had not yet been assembled nor was the canon of inspired scripture determined from the many books in circulation. The main accomplishment of Nicaea was the condemnation of Arianism , a widespread movement that taught, among other things, that the Son was not equal to the Father. This condemnation could not have been made unless there was a body empowered and recognized to make and diffuse such a proclamation throughout the Christian religion. The council also accomplished the formulation of the Nicece Creed.
Some point to 313AD when the Roman Emperor Constantine attributed his military victory over the eastern empire to the intercession of the Christian God. However, Constantine merely legalized Christianity and did not found anything, much less a religion, as can be noted by the fact that the Catholic institutional hierarchy was already in place along with sacraments and doctrines.
Things might better be put in perspective by quoting St. Vincent Lerins, a 5th century monk and Father of the Church, who wrote in 434AD concerning the early Christian Church:
“Therefore, because of the intricacies of error, which is so multiform, there is great need for the laying down of a rule for the exposition of Prophets and Apostles in accordance with the standard of the interpretation of the Catholic Church.
Now in the Catholic Church itself we take the greatest care to hold that which has been believed everywhere, always and by all. That is truly and properly ‘Catholic,’ as is shown by the very force and meaning of the word, which comprehends everything almost universally. We shall hold to this rule if we follow universality, antiquity, and consent. We shall follow universality if we acknowledge that one Faith to be true which the whole Church throughout the world confesses; antiquity if we in no wise depart from those interpretations which it is clear that our ancestors and fathers proclaimed; consent, if in antiquity itself, we keep following the definitions and opinions of all, or certainly nearly all, Bishops and Doctors alike.” The Vincentian Canon, in Commonitorium, chap IV, 434
This example is just one of the many concordant voices that are found among and down through the writings of the earliest Church Fathers. Lerins speaks of the Catholic Church as the Christian Church, which has always existed. He references established hierarchy (he mentions bishops here, as well as much more in other passages) and portrays the word catholic in its true sense. The Catholic Church has perpetuated the priesthood, the papacy, the doctrine, the Institution and the Faith of Christ since He founded the Church and made it efficacious by His death and resurrection.
So how can st Patrick be just a Christian. You see at that time Christianity was Catholicsm, before all these little heretic groups broke off (Protestants) claiming new religion. Maybe I should start my own religion as well. So you could wear orange and look like a total wanker.
I’m neither Irish nor Catholic, but I see some bastard wearing orange on St. Patrick’s Day, I’m going to kiss him upside the head with an aluminum baseball bat general principle.
blah blah blah blah..come to nyc st paddys day parade wearing orange and see what happens to you
I am a Protestant, and I come from a town that is about 90% Protestant, even a good number of the Italians and Irish in my hometown are Protestants, which is unusual for people of nationalities that are about 99% Catholic. But my point here is that what is strange is that there was never a Green vs. Orange issue on St. Patrick’s Day there, everyone just wore green because that’s what you did as a kid in school when you decorated your classroom with all the shamrocks and leprechauns and stuff like that you do in grade school. I never knew much about the whole religious controversy.
Now I live in an city that is the polar opposite, I am in the minority as there are probably 80-90% Catholics here. I am fine with that, and have alot of friends that are Catholic. What I don’t like is idiots that mock and shun me when I eat meat on Fridays during Lent (which Protestants do not practice), or when I don’t know what “All Saints Day” is, or tell me I am going to hell for not being Catholic. Sure, they are few, but they are out there. That is as bad as if I were to go up to a black person and call them a nigger, or mock a Jew for celebrating Passover.
Now I wear orange every St. Patrick’s day, not necessarily in defiance, but to show that I am proud that I am a little different than most of the others where I live now. There is absolutely nothing wrong with it, and people that have a problem with it are ignorant, like the couple posts prior to mine. You are stupid if you can’t figure out that we all believe in the same God, but our rituals are just a little different.
One day, perhaps in the very distant future, we’ll be able to stop quibbling over such little things as what color to wear on St. Patrick’s Day. My mum is from the UK, Church of England born and raised. She used to make us wear orange to school on St. Patrick’s Day. I suffered a few pinches for that. Guess what, I grew up and wear green now usually with some orange itnertwined. St. Patrick was a Catholic in the sense that he was a missionary for at least one branch of the original Christian church (I don’t remember when the eastern church split from the western). I’m a Lutheran now, and am quite content. We like to joke that it’s Catholic Lite – all the salvation with half the guilt. Of course my Baptist friends constantly remind me that they never heard of “John the Catholic” or “John the Lutheran.” I adhere to the following rule for all Christians: In essentials – Unity. In non-essentials – Liberty. In all things – Love. I think maybe St. Patrick would have agreed.
when I was a young girl, many, many years ago, I was told that the Irish wear Green and the Scots-Irish wear Orange. I didn’t realize it was a religious thing. Too bad people can’t get past religion, it really doesn’t matter, does it?
If more people knew the true beginnings of Catholicism they would be less likely to be so proud of it, as for Protestants, Lutherans Episcopalians and Baptists, they are all breakoffs from Catholicism. Don’t believe me? Look up Martin Luther, founder of the Lutheran Church, etc etc. I don’t believe in religion, I think it’s a waste. I can have my personal connection to God without church and propaganda, I don’t need to push my belief on anyone, it’s just between God and myself. If more people believed like I do we wouldn’t have so much religious strife. But they don’t and that’s ok too. I don’t wear either color on St Patrick’s day. I wore black and blue and white today. St. Patrick’s day celebrates the death of a man who converted much of Ireland to Catholicism, I see nothing to be celebrated.
In Scotland only catholics celebrate St Patricks day, Scottish Protestants would not even consider celebrating an Irish holiday. As for wearing orange, better off wearing red,white and blue.