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Saint Patrick's Day, although only a legal holiday in Suffolk County, Massachusetts〔(With a signature in green, St. Patrick’s Day became a holiday ), ''90.9 WBUR'', Boston, MA: WBUR, 12 March 2010, Retrieved 15 March 2014.〕 (where it is recognized alongside Evacuation Day) and Savannah, Georgia,〔Monaco, Rachael (March 10, 2013). "Second oldest St. Patrick’s Day parade in United States hosted by Philadelphians." ''Examiner.'' Denver, CO: Clarity Digital Group, LLC.〕 is nonetheless widely recognized and celebrated throughout the United States. It is primarily celebrated as a recognition of Irish and Irish American culture; celebrations include prominent displays of the color green, eating and drinking, religious observances, and numerous parades. The holiday has been celebrated on the North American continent since the late 18th century. ==Early celebrations== The Charitable Irish Society of Boston organized the first observance of Saint Patrick's Day in the Thirteen Colonies in 1737. Surprisingly, the celebration was not Catholic in nature, Irish immigration to the colonies having been dominated by Protestants. The society's purpose in gathering was simply to honor its homeland, and although they continued to meet annually to coordinate charitable works for the Irish community in Boston, they did not meet on 17 March again until 1794.〔 During the observance of the day, individuals attended a service of worship and a special dinner.〔 New York's first Saint Patrick's Day observance was similar to that of Boston. It was held on 17 March 1762 in the home of John Marshall, an Irish Protestant, and over the next few years informal gatherings by Irish immigrants were the norm. The first recorded parade in New York was by Irish soldiers in the British Army in 1766.〔 The first documented St. Patrick's Day Celebration in Philadelphia was held in 1771. Philadelphia's Friendly Sons of St. Patrick was found to honor St. Patrick and to provide relief to Irish immigrants in the city. Irish Americans have celebrated St. Patrick's Day in Philadelphia since their arrival in America. General George Washington, a member of Philadelphia's Friendly Sons of St. Patrick, actively encouraged Irish American patriots to join the Continental Army.〔(【引用サイトリンク】 title=Philadelphia's St. Patrick's Day Parade )〕 In 1780, while camped in Morristown, NJ, General Washington allowed his troops a holiday on 17 March "as an act of solidarity with the Irish in their fight for independence."〔(【引用サイトリンク】 title= "Jockey Hollow: the "Hard" Winter of 1779—80" )〕〔The original proclamation is available from the Library of Congress: (page 1 ) - (page 2 )〕 This event became known as The Saint Patrick's Day Encampment of 1780.〔("Saint Patrick’s Day". Encarta ) . Retrieved 17 March 2006.〕 Irish patriotism in New York City continued to soar, and the parade in New York City continued to grow. Irish aid societies like Friendly Sons of Saint Patrick and the Hibernian Society were created and marched in the parades. Finally when many of these aid societies joined forces in 1848, the parade became not only the largest parade in the United States but one of the largest in the world. The City of Savannah, Georgia, has hosted Saint Patrick's Day celebrations since 1824. It boasts a celebration rivaling that of New York City in size and fervor. Unlike any other cities, Savannah's historic parade is always held on March 17, not on the neighboring weekend. Festivities begin more than a week in advance with 〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.savannahga.gov/cityweb/SavannahGaGOV.nsf/0/973cfd59f5e0bfe185257568006fab2b?OpenDocument )〕 communal rituals and commemorative ceremonies, such as the St.Patrick`s Parade. Such events were, in fact, the main factors in shaping Irish-American identity as recognized today.〔Kenneth Moss, “St Patrick`s Day Celebrations and the Formation of Irish-American Identity, 1845-1875,” Journal of Social history, Vol. 29, No.1 (1995): 144〕 In fact, leading up to the 1870s, Irish-American identity in the United States was reworked through the shifting character of the Saint Patrick's Day rituals and features under three separate occasions: initially, in 1853 when it undertook a “spiritual rhetoric” notion, then when it became known as a “reformulated memory of an Irish past couched in terms of vengeance against Britain” to, finally, adopting a “sectarian catholic nationalism” attitude in the 1870s and 1880s.〔Moss, “St Patrick`s Day Celebrations and the Formation of Irish-American Identity, 1845-1875,” 127, 131, 133, 140.〕 In fact, ceremonies represent the very “junctures at which processes of identity formation surface through representation,” which implies that ritual practices represent the molding tools people turn to in order to build a national identity.〔Moss, “St Patrick`s Day Celebrations and the Formation of Irish-American Identity, 1845-1875,” p. 130〕 Furthermore, incorporating “the analysis of commemorative rituals” becomes a valuable element “in the context of broader historical studies” as such analysis reveals much about the collective conscience of the Irish-American community.〔Moss, “St Patrick`s Day Celebrations and the Formation of Irish-American Identity, 1845-1875,” 126〕 There is a clear gradual shift toward a nationalist attitude in the Irish-American Diaspora which can be detected in the prose of Doheny`s commemorative speech in 1853, but the “complete ascendency to a nationalist () in Irish identity” truly came in the 1870s and 1880s.〔Moss, “St Patrick`s Day Celebrations and the Formation of Irish-American Identity, 1845-1875,” p.131〕 More important, there were already numerous evidences of a national identity present in the Irish Catholic labouring classes prior to the settlement of an Irish-Catholic community in America.〔Moss, “St Patrick`s Day Celebrations and the Formation of Irish-American Identity, 1845-1875,” p.127〕 Despite the longing memory of a loved lost Ireland, the main factor that contributed to creating a clear “sense of group unity” in the Irish-American community really came with the hatred sentiments that were felt towards “British oppression and resistance”.〔 Furthermore, there is a turnover in perspectives towards the causes of the Great famine in the mind of the Irish-American that can be traced: one that varies from a “mourning religious view”, seen in Archbishop Hughes' sermon, to a perspective that shifts the blame towards the British monarchy for its indifference and greed, seen in Cahill’s speech in 1860.〔Moss, “St Patrick`s Day Celebrations and the Formation of Irish-American Identity, 1845-1875,” p. 133〕 From that point on, all the following commemorative speeches on the Saint Patrick`s Day invoked nationalist themes such as “British hatred” and “heroic struggle” and led the way for the creation of a “new parade” which gained in adherents and absorbed “elements of American patriotism and full-fledged nationalism”.〔Moss, “St Patrick`s Day Celebrations and the Formation of Irish-American Identity, 1845-1875,” 136.〕 The end result was such that the Irish-American community came to regard itself in the 1870s as a community that defined itself by dual loyalties on one hand, and in another as “a unified common organism,” which gathered in strength on the basis that they had a common past, “not a religious one but one that centered on the common Irish experience of British oppression and suffering”.〔Moss, “St Patrick`s Day Celebrations and the Formation of Irish-American Identity, 1845-1875,” p. 137-139〕 In other words, this goes to show that the shifting character of commemorative rituals experienced during the Saint Patrick's parade have influenced the development of American culture in a larger sense, since it contributed to enriching its heritage and making of its Irish-American Diaspora a prideful concept to be celebrated and admired.〔“St. Patrick`s Day Celebrations and the Formation of Irish-American Identity, 1845-1875,” 126〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Saint Patrick's Day in the United States」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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