Nursing sophomore Brenna Klaft is half Polish and half Scottish — but on St. Patrick's Day, she's 100 percent Irish.
Like many other students who celebrated the popular holiday Saturday, Klaft said she planned to attend a party for the occasion.
Although she recognizes St. Patrick's Day, it doesn't mean she — along with many others — knows exactly what the holiday commemorates.
"Everyone else celebrates so I just figure, 'Why not?'" she said. "I don't know the story behind (St. Patrick's Day)."
St. Patrick was born in Britain. When he was a teenager, he was enslaved and taken to Ireland. He escaped years later and return to Ireland as a Christian missionary, became a bishop and is regarded as the patron saint of Ireland, said Fr. Maurice Hayes, of Holy Cross Parish in Lansing.
Some people know St. Patrick for banishing the snakes from Ireland. This story is used as symbolism for St. Patrick's missionary work, Hayes said.
"My guess is the myth would come from St. Patrick just doing his best to convert those who did not believe," he said. "That was probably associated with the serpent — coming back to Genesis — that he drilled out all the falsehood of Ireland."
The shamrock is a symbol that also originated with St. Patrick, Hayes said.
"Because he did his work in Ireland, the shamrock is what he used to explain the Trinity of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit being one God," he said. "That's how the shamrock came to be associated with the faith in Ireland."
In Ireland, St. Patrick's Day is viewed as a religious holiday and isn't recognized the way it is in the United States, Hayes said.
"It's marked by fasting and going to mass and making amends with those you have offended," said Michael Diebold, director of communications for the diocese of Lansing. "There's very, very little of that in the U.S. Here, it's almost exclusively a secular celebration that has nothing to do with a saint or anything else. It's no longer a Catholic holiday, if it ever was in the United States."
Before she found out she was part Irish last week, human biology senior Jasmine Hill didn't see a cause for celebration.
"My mom is in a book club and read a book called 'Family Tree' about a white married couple who had a child that came out black," Hill said. "They found out the husband had black blood. So my mom started researching our history. She started calling my aunts and grandmoms and cousins."
"I think her grandfather was part Irish. She also found we have part of an (American) Indian tribe and that my great aunt is 100 percent African. Now that I know, I told my mom 'Let's get green beer.'"
Art history sophomore Sarah Russell is Protestant, but her family still celebrates by eating corned beef and drinking green milk. Geography senior Joe Frost also joins in on St. Patty's Day traditions even though he's not sure whether or not he has Irish blood.
"I know my mom's side was originally O'Dell, and now it's Dell," he said. "So I've always had a hunch (I'm Irish), but I'm not sure.
"My philosophy is everyone's Irish somewhere along the way."
