The Luckiest Day in Christendom

I enjoy celebrating St. Patrick's Day. Despite the red hair (which is Norwegian), I have absolutely no Irish blood in me whatsoever, but St. Patrick is my hero. Besides, St. Patrick's Day is certainly not an ethnic holiday--St. Patrick himself was British! I love to tell my kids about how he bravely saved Ireland from demon-worship. I love to sing his song, St. Patrick's breastplate-- what other song in the hymnal has wizards in it? And I love whiskey. St. Patrick's Day could also represent another holiday redeemed on the calendar from the pagans, much like Easter or Christmas.

The Ides of March (March 15th) was previously the most unlucky day of the pagan calendar. This was the feast day of the god Ares, or Mars, the god of war. Considering that most wars were fought in the spring, it was often a time of battle and death. Also, most famously, it is the day Caesar was stabbed by his friends ("beware the Ides of March"). In fact, even in modern times, the Russian Revolution was considered complete on this day when Czar Nicholas abdicated his rule. Then St. Patrick, the Christian missionary, goes and dies at this time of year, and his feast day replaces Ares. Considering his life--miraculously preserved from wicked kings and Druid priests, saving the Irish nation, and eventually saving western civilization--his saint's day unknowingly changed the unluckiest time of year into the luckiest.