Planning to wear green to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day? While that’s what most people do (legend has it that wearing green makes a person invisible to leprechauns that will pinch someone if they see them), the patron saint of Ireland actually wore vestments that were a light shade of blue.

It’s thought that the color green became associated with the day that celebrates the Christian missionary, for several other reasons. Wearing green, eating green food and even drinking green beer on March 17 (the day the saint died in 461 AD) may commemorate St. Patrick’s use of the shamrock to teach about the Holy Trinity when he was preaching about Christianity in Ireland.

Also, Ireland is referred to as the Emerald Isle because of the greenness of the countryside, and green became connected with the Irish independence movement when Irish soliders wore full green uniforms during an uprising against British rule in 1798.

So, in honor of St. Patrick’s Day coming up tomorrow, here are the favorite green things of Velsoftians:

Favorite Green things!  
Sandra Emeralds The stone of prophecy!
Cindy Green eggs and ham Channeling her inner kid!
Ian Creme de menthe More sophisticated drink.
Ben Green Beer Just once a year, really!
Jan Grass For the cows!
Sydney Kermit and Mike Wazowski The kid in her
Jim The Green Lantern Always goes for the superheroes!
Nathan Evergreen trees A must when living in rural New Brunswick
Dylan Apples Teacher’s pet kind of person
Carol Green M&Ms Actually, all the M&Ms
Marty Oscar the Grouch It’s a defence mechanism to survive in the Halifax office!
Michael Shamrock If luck is being given out — why not?
Dave Leprechaun Has been looking for one his whole life
Scott Money No brainer
Waldo Green eyes Mesmerizes him
Brandon Broccoli, spinach, peas, lettuce Some chicken and bacon on occasion too
Glen Mint It was mint to be
Jean A 10th-century Celadon Pot High brow kind of thing!
Pablo Green Balloons But not the Red Balloons
Craig Green Turaco Nice to have on the farm
Simon Pale Green Things tickets Music makes the world go round
Peter Rivington Greenwich Gift Certificate Good eats (I’m sure they have green stuff there)

What’s in the Pipeline:

  • Carol is vacationing this week.
  • Jan is creating components for our April releases.
  • Kevin and Sydney are working on custom projects.

 Tech topics:

  • Career Paths have been soft launched
  • Work is in progress on Badging

Course Count:

Courses released this month:

Here is the official count of courses for both courseware and eLearning, broken down by Computer and SoftSkills.

Computer SoftSkills Total Courses
Courseware 278 167 445
eLearning 879 164 1043

St. Patrick’s Day facts

Shamrocks

The shamrock is not the official national symbol of Ireland. That honor goes to the harp.

The odds of finding a four-leaf clover are about one in 10,000.

The word “shamrock” comes from the Irish word “seamróg,” meaning “little clover.”

Snakes

In Irish lore, Saint Patrick drove all the snakes out of Ireland, but there’s no evidence that snakes ever existed there because of the cold climate.

Scholars say the term “snakes” may be figurative and refer to pagan religious beliefs and practices rather than reptiles.

Name

St. Patrick’s birth name was Maewyn Succat, but he changed it to Patricius after becoming a priest.

Not Irish

Patrick wasn’t Irish. He was born in 385 AD to Roman parents in Scotland or Wales in the late fourth century.

Slavery

When he was a teenager, Patrick was captured and taken to Ireland as a slave.

For about six years he herded sheep there, before escaping to England where he became a priest.

He returned to Ireland in his 30s as a missionary to convert Celtic pagans to Christianity.

Pinching

According to legend, wearing green makes a person invisible to leprechauns that will pinch someone if they see them.

Dry times

From 1903 to 1970, St. Patrick’s Day was a religious observance for the entire country and all pubs were closed for the day.

The law keeping pubs shut down was overturned in 1970, when St. Patrick’s was reclassified as a national holiday.

People drink 13 million glasses of Guinness on St. Patrick’s day – twice as many as on a normal day.

Green River

The tradition of dyeing the Chicago River green started with Richard J. Daley, who was mayor of Chicago from 1955-1976.

Daley wanted to develop the city’s riverfront area, and in order to pinpoint where sewage was being dumped into the water, he authorized pouring a special green dye into the river.

In 1962 the entire river was turned green to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day.

In 1966 powdered, a top-secret vegetable-based dye replaced the oil-based fluorescein that environmentalists thought was damaging the river.

The river stays green for about five hours.