Explorica is very proud of our new resource for teachers: our 2018-19 Around the World classroom calendar!
The calendar features a new country and an international holiday or event for you to celebrate with your students each month. Download a new page each month on this blog (and subscribe!), hang it up in your classroom, and talk to your students about how the holiday reflects the country’s history and culture.
This March, we’re featuring St. Patrick’s Day. St. Patrick’s Day—celebrated on March 17—marks the death day of St. Patrick, a fifth-century missionary and Ireland’s patron saint. It is said that St. Patrick found God as a slave in Gaelic Ireland before leaving to become a priest and returning to convert the country to Christianity.
Legend has it that he used the three-leafed shamrock to explain the holy trinity to locals, and that he drove snakes out of the country, a metaphor for driving out the pagan traditions. The holiday began in the ninth and 10th centuries as a religious feast, and is now a day to celebrate Irish culture around the world.
Questions to ask your students:
What does St. Patrick’s Day mean for you?
Why do you think St. Patrick’s Day is such a big deal in the United States? Why do you think it’s celebrated in countries around the world?
What other holidays have changed in significance over the years?
Why do you think we celebrate on the date of St. Patrick’s death?