Snakes, Saints, and Shadows: The Untold Story of St. Patrick’s Day

Everyone wears green on March 17th… but do you know what the “snakes” really represented?

This episode dives into the true history of St. Patrick’s Day — from Christian conversion to cultural erasure — and how modern witches can reclaim the day by honoring those lost to persecution.

Why some witches wear red and black instead of green.
 How the holiday became a global drinking event.
 And what remembrance can look like in modern practice.

Snakes. Saints. Shadows.

Listen now on Old Ways, New Days.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:04

It's early morning on March seventeenth. The streets are still quiet, but already you can see the green creeping in. Shamrocks in storefront windows, glittering beads hanging in pub doorways, plastic hats waiting to crown the day's revelers. By nightfall, the world will be awash in emerald. But beneath the green there is another story. A story older than parades, older than pub pub crawls, older even than the saint himself. It is the story of a land once woven with sacred wells and oak groves, a land where poets were priests and fires were lit in honor of the returning sun. A land where the word snake may not have meant what you've been told. Today we peel back the glitter and green dye to ask, what was St. Patrick's Day before it became a party? And who paid the price for its mythology? Welcome, witches, pagans, heathens, spiritualists, and anyone interested in living sustainably.

SPEAKER_00 1:06

This is Old Ways, New Days, where the old ways meet the good dirt. I'm Kayla, and I'm Nell. And each week we explore the sacred art of living close to the land.

SPEAKER_01 1:19

From compost to covens, chickens to charms, we're reclaiming self-sufficiency, seasonal living, and ancestral wisdom. Whether you're stirring your cauldron or your soup pot, this is a space for wild-hearted folk walking the homesteading path with intention, magic, and muddy boots. Right. Well, you know, I kind of wanted to do our own thoughtful honoring of it.

SPEAKER_00 2:22

Mm-hmm. One of my uh favorite movies is uh Boondock scenes.

SPEAKER_01 2:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:32

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01 2:32

I tried watching it the other night. Uh the fiance wanted, he's like, You've never seen this? I'm like, no. And we got like 20 minutes in, I'm like, not for me.

SPEAKER_02 2:40

It's so good.

SPEAKER_01 2:42

Sorry.

SPEAKER_02 2:43

It is so good. Maybe I'll try again. It's so good. But I'm one of those uh thriller kind of girls. Well, so am I.

SPEAKER_01 2:55

And he's not, he's the he he loves the romantic.

SPEAKER_00 2:58

He's the rom-com.

SPEAKER_01 2:59

He's the rom-com, and I'm the thriller horror. So I don't know why you wouldn't like it. I I maybe I just didn't catch my attention in the first 20 minutes. I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 3:09

Yeah. I watch it every St.

SPEAKER_02 3:11

Patrick's Day. I don't know why. I don't know. That's your St. Patrick's Day movie? Yes, it is. I have it on DVD and I watch it every year. Yeah. And then right after that, I'll watch All Saints Day. Um, there you are. Hi, handsome boy. Come here, little man.

SPEAKER_00 3:36

So, who is the real Patrick? Is it history versus legend? Mm-hmm. So Saint Patrick was not Irish. Did you know that? I did, yes. Well yeah, of course you did. She's the one that wrote this.

SPEAKER_01 3:50

Well, and I knew beforehand anyway, but.

SPEAKER_00 3:53

So Saint Patrick was not Irish. He was a Romano-British Christian, kidnapped at 16 and enslaved in Ireland. After escaping, he later returned as a missionary. Historical records, including Patrick's own confessio, show he worked to convert the Irish to Christianity. The famous legend says he drove the snakes out of Ireland. But here's the truth. Ireland never had snakes after the last ice age. So what were the snakes? Many historians and folklorists interpret the snakes as symbolic, representing pagan spiritual leaders, druids, and indigenous religious practices. Christianity didn't simply coexist with Irish spirituality. Over centuries it replaced it. Sacred wells were redicated Rededicated. Sacred wells were rededicated to saints. Goddesses were transformed into holy women. Seasonal fire festivals were reframed as Christian holidays. It wasn't an overnight purge, but it was a cultural conversation that reshaped a people's spiritual identity.

SPEAKER_01 5:24

And even though I don't go into it, it was um convert or die.

SPEAKER_00 5:32

Wow. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 5:33

You're gonna do this. Mm-hmm. Okay, bye. Yeah. So it's not it's not a happy history. So while Patrick himself was not a witch hunter, the widespread European witch hunts came nearly a thousand years later. Christianization laid the theological groundwork that would eventually criminalize pagan practices. Between the 15th and 18th century, tens of thousands across Europe were executed for witchcraft. These persecutions were fueled by religious doctrine that framed folk magic, herbalism, and pre-Christian spiritual practices as diabolical. Ireland experienced fewer witch trials than places like Scotland or Germany, but the cultural shift away from pagan identity had long-term effects. When saints replaced spirits and miracles replaced magic, those who keep the old ways often became suspicious figures. And suspicion in certain eras becomes deadly. For many modern witches and pagans, Saint Patrick's Day represents not just a saint, but a symbol of spiritual erasure.

SPEAKER_00 6:43

So ironically, the day meant to honor a Christian missionary became globally known for public intoxication. The modern American version of Saint Patrick's Day evolved largely to the modern American version of St. Patrick's Day evolved largely in immigrant communities. In cities like New York and Boston, Irish immigrants used parades to assert pride in the face of discrimination. Over time, commercialism amplified the celebration. Green beer, pub crawls, plastic shamrocks, kiss me, I'm Irish slogans. Ireland itself once observed March 17th as a solemn religious feast day. Pubs were even closed historically. It wasn't until the late 20th century that tourism campaigns helped transform it into the global green spectacle we know today. What began as a day of religious remembrance and cultural pride became a marketing machine. The saint who drove out snakes now presides over drinking games. I don't know, I'll get flack for it, but I'm kind of glad.

SPEAKER_01 8:08

Yeah. With my, you know, I have Irish history, ancestry, so. Me too. Yep, as does my my fiance. I have a wee bit, Irish. For witches, pagans, and earth-based practitioners, March 17th can feel complicated. It marks the symbolic suppression of indigenous spirituality, the long arc of Christian dominance over European folk practices. The cultural myth that snakes were often symbolic of wisdom and rebirth, are evil. But we do not have to engage in bitterness to acknowledge harm. Instead, some modern witches chose reclamation. Rather than green and gold, symbols of the commercial holiday, somewhere red and black. Red for the blood of those executed during witch hunts, black for the shadowed histories erased or rewritten. Together they honor resilience. March 17th can become a day of ancestor remembrance, a candle lighting ritual for those lost to persecution, a moment of education and truth telling. It becomes not a reflection of Irish culture, but a remembrance of what came before forced conversion.

SPEAKER_00 9:25

So here are ways witches might mark march seventeenth was with intention. Wear red and black as quiet solidarity. Light a red candle for persecuted ancestors. Research local witch trial histories, honor Celtic deities and pre Christian Irish spirituality. Visit a natural place, a well, a grove, a river, and leave biodegradable offerings. Instead of drowning in green beer, you rip into red earth. Instead of celebrating conquest, you celebrate continuity. The old ways were never truly extinguished. They adapted. They survived in the kitchens, in whispered charms, in garden rows, in lullabies. And now they rise again.

SPEAKER_01 10:22

So while history is rarely simple, Saint Patrick was likely a complex human being, not a villain in a cloak. But the milk built around him has been used to symbolize spiritual conquest. And every conquest leaves shadows. March 17th doesn't have to be a day of resentment, it can be a day of remembrance. A day when witches stand not in opposition, but in truth. Green may fill the streets, but red and black carry memory, and memory is powerful magic.