Well, has your spring fever broken yet? We have endured the cold and the long nights, but now the daylight is getting longer and we have the time change Sunday morning. Symbols of spring are all around us now, like the coming of St. Patrick's Day on March 17th. St. Patrick, the patron saint of the emerald isles, was not Irish at all. He was born in Roman-occupied Britain into a Christian family. At around age 16, he was kidnapped by Irish raiders and taken to Ireland as a slave, where he worked as a shepherd for several years. During this time, he deepened his faith. He eventually escaped, returned home, trained as a priest, and following a vision, he returned to Ireland as a missionary. He is credited with converting many of the pagan Irish to Christianity, establishing churches, monasteries, and schools. 

Legends grew around him, such as using the shamrock, a three-leaf clover, to explain the Holy Trinity. He would pluck a shamrock from the ground, hold it up, and use it as a visual aid to explain the complex doctrine of the Holy Trinity, one God in three distinct persons, (the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit). St. Patrick is also credited with driving snakes out of Ireland. Although, historical records show that there were no snakes in Ireland since the Ice Age. He died on March 17th around 461 AD, which became his feast day in the Christian calendar. The holiday was formally recognized as a feast day by the Catholic Church in the early 17th century, though it had been observed in Ireland for centuries earlier with religious services, modest feasts, and holy observances. 

In Ireland, it remained primarily a solemn religious day for a long time, with blue, not green, originally associated with the saint and Ireland. The modern, festive version with parades, green clothing, shamrocks, and celebrations of Irish culture, evolved largely through Irish immigrants in America. The first recorded St. Patrick's Day parade occurred not in Ireland but in a Spanish colony in the new world in what would become St. Augustine, Florida in the year 1601. The first St. Patrick's Day parade in New York City was over a century and a half later in 1762, when Irish soldiers in the British army marched to honor their patron saint. 

Shortly after St. Patrick's Day is the Vernal Equinox on March 20th, the official start of spring. Vernal first appeared in English in the early 16th century, recorded around the 1530s - its origins are borrowed from the Latin vernalis (meaning “of the spring”). The Latin word, Equinox refers to either of the two moments each year when the Sun crosses the celestial equator, making day and night of nearly equal length across the globe. After that day, each day will give us more light than night. This is good news for anyone suffering from seasonal depression as the sun’s rays and warmer weather produces higher oxytocin levels as well as Serotonin and Dopamine. 

But my favorite symbol of spring is the French toast breakfast at the Swan Lake Firehouse this Sunday. They have a breakfast each time we have a time change, so it is easy to remember when the breakfast is. Like I mentioned last week, we get together with friends and go around at least one Sunday a month to one firehouse or another. Shout out to Loch Sheldrake FD for a lovely breakfast last Sunday, even though I didn't win the 50/50, we still had a great time.