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Wearing of the Green
By Velda | March 16, 2011
The original colour associated with St. Patrick was blue, but over the years the colour green became more widely associated with the holiday.
Green ribbons and shamrocks were worn in celebration of St. Patrick’s Day as early as the 17th century.
St. Patrick is said to have used the shamrock, a three-level plant, to explain the Holy Trinity to the Irish so the wearing and displaying of shamrocks and shamrock-inspired designs became a ubiquitous feature of the day. In the 1798 rebellion, Irish soldiers wore full green uniforms to make a political statement.
The phrase “the wearing of the green”, meaning to wear a shamrock on one’s clothing, is derived from a song of the same name.
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