Saint Patrick's Day - The Man, the Parade and the History

On a Sunday in March of every year, Omotesando-dori is transformed into a bustling Celtic cultural fiesta. Tokyo's St.Patrick's Day parade is undoubtedly one of the best annual international events in Japan with over 1,000 participants and some 30,000 spectators. This fun-filled international parade offers a unique opportunity for all to enjoy the delights of Irish music and dancing, Celtic art and design, colorful paraders from throughout Japan and even a chance to sample a free glass of Guinness or Baileys - two of Ireland's finest liquid exports. The St. Patrick's Day celebrations in Tokyo also have a strong international dimension with Irish, American, British, Japanese and citizens of the world coming together to revel in a day that has longed ceased to be an exclusively Irish affair. Japanese Irish dancers will step to the tune of fiddles and tin whistles, while 'St.Patrick' himself will lead the van of bagpipe bands, marching bands, the finest of the US military's musicians, university cheerleading teams, international schools and for animal lovers - Irish setters and Irish wolfhounds joining in to enjoy the limelight. Volunteers from all walks of life can also be seen carrying balloons and banners in this prestigious parade.

St.Patrick's Day has become such an inclusively international event that it is easy to forget the origins of the day and, why on the weekend closest to March 17th throughout the world, green has truly gone global. 'St. Paddy's Day' is traditionally a religious holiday and green is the predominant color seen at the parades because in Ireland, green symbolizes hope and nature and the beginning of spring. March 17th marks the anniversary of the death of the man who, legend claims, converted the pagan Irish to Christianity. In fact, the legend of Saint Patrick banishing the snakes from Ireland is exactly that, a legend, and in reality serves to symbolize the ending of pagan life and culture in early Ireland.

Little is known about the early life of Saint Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland. His life however was certainly full of irony. Most notable is the fact that he was not Irish at all but British, having being kidnapped from his home in Britain as a boy by Irish pirates and forced to live as a slave for six years tending sheep in Ireland. It was a lonely and frightening experience, and he found comfort in prayer and reflection. Patrick's real name was also very un-Irish, Maewyn Succat. He only adopted the more Christian name of Patrick after later becoming a priest, more than ten years after escaping from Ireland to Britain and then on to Gaul (France) where he studied in a monastery for over twelve years.

Legend has it that during his absence from Ireland, Patrick was haunted by a calling to return to convert the Irish. His knowledge of the Irish language and people qualified him for the role of lead missionary, and at the ripe old age of sixty he was sent to Ireland to supervise the final stages of the conversion of its pagan people. Contrary to popular belief, St.Patrick did not introduce Christianity to Ireland but rather helped to guarantee its success, decades after the first brave missionaries had landed in a then strange and hostile land. The saint remained in his adopted home for some thirty years as a missionary before dying on March 17th, 461 AD.

New York

Yet another irony is the fact that the tradition of the St. Patrick's Day parade began not in Ireland but in the United States, when Irish soldiers serving with the British Army marched through New York City on March 17th, 1762. From humble roots, the St.Patrick's Day parade has gone from strength to strength and is now celebrated in nearly all the major cities of the world stretching from New York to Sydney and Moscow to Tokyo. The New York City parade is by far the largest with over 200,000 participants and over a million watching from the street or on television.

The first parade in Tokyo took place in 1992 and like so many others it has gone from strength to strength due largely to hard work, generous sponsorship and the old Irish saying that on this day 'Everybody is Irish' and as such welcome to dance, drink, laugh and enjoy the festivities like so many others throughout the world on St. Patrick's Day.

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