6

SNH St. Patrick's Day

Embed Size (px)

DESCRIPTION

Suffolk News-Herald celebrates St. Patrick's Day.

Citation preview

Page 1: SNH St. Patrick's Day
Page 2: SNH St. Patrick's Day

From StaFF reportSSuffolk NewS-Herald

Historic downtown Suffolk is going green on Saturday to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day.

Eighteen downtown businesses and arts venues are hosting special events includ-ing live entertainment, refreshments, discounts, Irish food and beverages, open houses and more as part of the “Shamrock Stroll.”

Visitors can take in the sights of down-town, including historic museums and art galleries, or snap a few photos for the Suffolk Art Gallery’s photo walk.

Suffolk Restaurant Week also kicks off March 17.

All the participants are open for differ-ent hours, but no matter what time you come downtown, there will be something for you. Breakfast begins at some eateries at 7 a.m., and the fun continues until early Sunday.

Shamrock Stroll participants include Amici’s Italian Restaurant & Pizza Café, The Baron’s Pub, Cordially Invited, Embroidery Etc., Hilton Garden Inn Riverfront and Suffolk Conference Center, Jester’s Gallery Shop, Mosaic by Holland’s, Plaid Turnip, Richardson and Nash Clothiers, Riddick’s Folly House Museum, Rosa’s Coffee Cantina, Seaboard Station Railroad Museum, Shooting Star Gallery, Suffolk Art Gallery, Suffolk Center for Cultural Arts, Suffolk Visitor

Page 3: SNH St. Patrick's Day

Follow SNHon Facebook

Center & Gift Shop, Sushi Aka and UniquelyLeo’s Ltd.

Most of the restaurants will be offer-ing Restaurant Week deals, and many of the retail stores will have special dis-counts.

The Hilton Garden Inn will have an event coordinator open house from noon to 5 p.m.

Visitors can take this opportunity to tour Riddick’s Folly House Museum, the 1837 Greek Revival mansion on North Main Street. While there, they can

stop in next door to the Suffolk Visitor Center, which will offer light refresh-ments, discounts on gift shop purchases and a drawing to win a Suffolk ghost walk for yourself and some friends.

Stop by the Seaboard Station Railroad Museum for “Tastings, Teas and Trains,” an experience for the entire family with entertainment, book sign-ings and train fun from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.

The Shooting Star Gallery will have refreshments, music and discounts for anyone wearing green from noon to 7

p.m.The Suffolk Art Gallery will hold a

walking photo shoot beginning at Rosa’s Coffee Cantina at 2 p.m.

The variety of activities at the Suffolk Center for Cultural Arts will include a green fountain, a Children’s Theatre of Hampton Roads performance, the “Land of Our Fathers” exhibit and the Masters of Motown show.

The event is sponsored by the Downtown Suffolk Hospitality Association.

Page 4: SNH St. Patrick's Day

W hether you’re Irish, Catholic or nei-ther of the above, there’s a pretty good chance that you’ve celebrated

St. Patrick’s Day at some point in your life-time.

Maybe you wore green socks in elementa-ry school to avoid getting pinched, or maybe you consumed green beer in a pub some-

where along with a hundred other people trying to speak to their waitresses in an Irish brogue. Or maybe you’ve attended one of the hundreds of parades or festivals that are held at locations around the world to mark the occasion.

But the true significance of St. Patrick’s Day is probably lost by now to most of

those who celebrate each March 17 — at least to many of those who are celebrating in places other than Ireland.

Early on, the holiday was originally intended to celebrate the life of a Christian missionary from Wales who was originally brought to Ireland as a slave at the age of 16, near the turn of the fifth century A.D.

Page 5: SNH St. Patrick's Day

Patrick is known to have lived in Ireland for six years before

escaping and return-ing to his home, where

he entered the Roman Catholic Church and later

returned to Ireland as a bishop.His work there to spread the Gospel resulted in thou-

sands of baptisms, the ordination of priests to lead the new Christian communities and the conversion of people of all walks of life, from the sons of kings to lowly peas-ants.

Irish folklore holds that St. Patrick used the three-leaved shamrock to teach about the Holy Trinity, although the plant was also considered sacred by Ireland’s pagan religions before his arrival there. Legend also holds that he banished snakes from Ireland, driving them into the sea, though there’s little evidence that snakes ever existed on the island.

St. Patrick is thought to have died on March 17 in the year 461 A.D.

European Irishmen celebrated a feast day in honor of St. Patrick beginning around the ninth century, and the Catholic church added the commemoration to its liturgi-cal calendar in the 1600s. In 1903, it became an official holiday in Ireland. Since 1996, the Irish Republic’s gov-ernment has held an official event, St. Patrick’s Festival, which has grown into a multi-day celebration that has attracted as many as a million visitors.

But Irish blood runs deep, and all around the world, when March 17 rolls around, people who are Irish, people who can trace Irish roots on their family trees and people who have absolutely no connection to Ireland at all have claimed the unofficial holiday as a reason for a celebra-tion.

In America, there will be parades, feasts and, in many cases, plenty of alcohol. And there will be plenty of green in a nod to a tradition that began during the 19th century.

Everybody’s Irish on St. Patrick’s Day.

Page 6: SNH St. Patrick's Day

suffolknewsherald.com