Celebrating St. Patrick’s Day | A Story for Adoptees
Every year on March 17th, throngs of people come together to observe St. Patrick’s Day, a celebration adorned with parades, music, Guinness, and a lot of green! Originally a Catholic holiday used to honor Saint Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland, like most holidays, this holiday has become secularized and commercialized. Largely thanks to mass emigration of Irish people to the United States, St. Patrick’s Day saw the effects of globalization, as American hubs with particularly large Irish immigrant populations (like Boston, New York City, and Chicago) threw city-wide celebrations to mark the occasion (“St. Patrick’s Day,” Britannica).
I am Irish, but you certainly would not guess that from looking at me. I cannot even count the number of times I have had to explain that I was born in China (ergo, my Asian appearance), but my (adoptive) mother was born and raised in Ireland, thus entitling me to Irish citizenship. And even then, I am not sure that everyone believes me due to my non-Irish appearance. As such, St. Patrick’s Day, one of my favorite holidays, often brings up feelings of inadequacy and insecurity.
Who is St. Patrick, Anyways?
Growing up Irish Catholic, having attended Catholic school from Kindergarten through 12th grade, I learned a fair bit about Saint Patrick. Throughout my younger years, I spent St. Patrick’s Day coloring in black-and-white prints of Saint Patrick in his iconic green cloak and bishop’s hat; as I got older, I learned about his life and his legacy. I learned Saint Patrick was actually born in Roman Britain around 387 A.D., and famously, he was kidnapped by Irish pirates and taken to Ireland to herd sheep. Saint Patrick escaped back to Britain, but voluntarily returned to Ireland as a priest to spread Christianity to the nation.
There are many legends of Saint Patrick’s miracles affecting the island of Ireland, including his banishing all the snakes and using the shamrock to explain the Holy Family. Saint Patrick is credited with converting Ireland to Christianity and building churches throughout the country. After this lifetime of service, Saint Patrick passed away on March 17, 461. Saint Patrick is the patron saint of Ireland, and possibly one of the most iconic symbols of Ireland along with the shamrock he used to spread Christianity.
A Story of Belonging
I have written at length about my struggles with racial and cultural identity growing up. For a brief recap, it took me a while to feel at home in my body and in my country as an Asian-born adoptee with Caucasian parents. I felt that I did not fit in around my school or amongst my friends as classmates never saw me as fully American. I constantly received the question, “No, but where are you really from?” as if “America” was not the correct answer. However, I also realized that I would certainly never fit in in China, despite likely looking more like the people there. I was culturally Western; I could not speak or understand any language spoken in China, and, heck, I couldn’t even use chopsticks. This conflict of who I was on the outside and who I was on the inside plagued many of my younger years as I grappled to find comfort in my own skin.
When I was fifteen, I went through the process of Confirmation, a sacrament in the Catholic church where adolescents affirm their religious beliefs in front of their families and their community. From what I was taught, because many Catholics are baptized as infants (not by their own volition), Confirmation is a way for the individual to reaffirm the faith that their parents chose for them. Preparing for the sacrament of Confirmation required two years of religious education, where pupils were taught what exactly it was they were affirming to believe in.
Among other important aspects of Confirmation, candidates choose a Confirmation name. Specifically, “those seeking confirmation choose to take a saint’s name with whom they identify” and “after confirmation, the confirmed can pray to the saint for guidance and protection.”
This part of the Confirmation process was tedious as each candidate had to do research on the saint of their choosing and explain why they had chosen this person. Many other fifteen-year-olds in my Confirmation class chose saints with interesting names, like Ludwig or Erasmus. However, when it came to me, I knew exactly who I was choosing: Saint Patrick. I whipped up a research paper on this legendary Catholic icon, completed with my justification that as an Irish person, I felt connected to Saint Patrick. The similarities did not end there: Like Saint Patrick, I spent a lot of my life in a country where I was not born. Furthermore, I had religious family members who had also adopted St. Patrick as their patron, so not only did St. Patrick appeal to my Irish side, but I also felt that I had deep familial ties to the Saint of Ireland.
A Story of Choosing To Belong
In 2023, while studying abroad in London, my boyfriend traveled to the U.K. to visit me. We decided to hop over to Ireland so he could see the beautiful country and meet some of my family members who he would never otherwise get the opportunity to meet. We spent a few days in Dublin, the nation’s capital on the eastern side of the country, and then we made our way to the rural County Mayo, a three-hour train ride west. I have spent a lot of time in Ireland, having spent every Christmas there since I was a baby. I walked us around Dublin confidently showing him sights like Temple Bar, St. Patrick’s Cathedral, and Grafton Street. I showed him how to utilize the public transport situation, and helped him translate the “Nollaig Shona Dhuit!” (“Merry Christmas!”) signs all over Ireland—we were visiting in late November and the nation was preparing for the Christmas season.
Both my boyfriend and I noticed that while walking around Dublin, many, many locals and other tourists thought my boyfriend was the Irish native and I, the Asian girl, was a mere tourist. My boyfriend fits in perfectly with the Irish—he is a tall, fair-skinned, red-head; so naturally, many assumed he was from Ireland or at the very least, had family there. Jaws would drop and awkward laughs would ensue when I explained to curious onlookers that my mom was from Ireland, I had family in County Mayo, and I was even an Irish citizen. Sometimes, it was a bit disheartening because I was tired of having to explain myself to people, and it felt that I was needing to validate myself to locals. However, when the train pulled into Castlebar, County Mayo on the west side of Ireland, I immediately felt at home.
A close family friend, who is basically my aunt, picked us up from the train station and brought us straight to my absolute favorite restaurant in the world (seriously, their vegetable soup and soda bread are the best). While eating there, many friends and acquaintances of my family came in and chatted with us. “Ah, John’s granddaughter is here!” “How are your parents in California?” “We miss your grandparents.” And most affectionately, “The Creighton girl is home!” (Creighton is my grandparents’ surnames and “Creighton girl” refers to me). Even though in Dublin I felt like I had to explain myself constantly, in County Mayo, I was a member of the community, the proud granddaughter of John and Pauline, two upstanding natives who left a positive legacy on their little town.
Something that always stuck with me was Saint Patrick’s voluntary return to Ireland, while not his place of birth, a place where he spent a large chunk of his life. The (Catholic) Irish claim St. Patrick as their guardian, protector, and mediator. He was not from Ireland, but he left a positive legacy on the country by bringing Christianity to Ireland and allegedly banishing the snakes (figuratively and literally).
Over time, St. Patrick has become one of the vastest-reaching figureheads of Ireland, with Saint Patrick’s Day becoming synonymous with celebrating all things Irish. I think that is another reason I relate so strongly to Saint Patrick. Despite not being from Ireland or being a Creighton by blood, I have accepted the culture and the people who matter to me have accepted me whole-heartedly as family.
This St. Patrick’s Day, in celebrating Saint Patrick and all things Irish, remember to celebrate family and belonging. Just as Saint Patrick used the shamrock to teach the Irish about the Holy Trinity (the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit), I am going to repurpose the shamrock and apply it to the adoption triad (the adoptee, the adoptive parents, and the birth parents). A shamrock is made up of three-shaped leaves, which come together to create a beautiful, complete plant. In the same way, the adoption triad represents important components of an adoptee’s identity and story. The lessons of Saint Patrick are far-reaching, and while we celebrate all things Irish (as we should), we can also use this celebration as an opportunity to reflect on community, belonging, and choice.
