| The sixth annual Get Green festivities attracted more that one hundred people on Saturday morning. At the gathering, Fort Wayne Fire Department firefighters shot about 15 gallons of food grade green dye from four fire hoses into the St. Mary's River. The shooting of the water, the coloring of the river, was to begin the St. Patrick's celebration. The wearing of the green this year was to include the river coloration. However, the rivers running in Fort Wayne in the springtime are much faster than the one in Chicago, according to event organizer Eric Lahey. Thus, the rivers do not stay green for very long. Dive team members actually are in boats on the water and work to mix in the color after it is short from the firehoses. Sometimes the firefighters do a test run through before the actual event.
Many legends are related to the Saint Patrick name, for example, he with the help of three leafs (shamrock) explained the concept of Saint Triplet. "As three leafs may grow from a single stem, God also may be single in three faces", - this sentence of the Saint has already become a Christianity rule. In Ireland, there is a tradition of fixing the leaf of a shamrock to a dress, which is the symbol of the cross, the color of Catholics, even the color of the "emerald country". There even is a church anthem, which says that Saint Patrick with the help of a shamrock interrupted pagan rituals, which was performed in the Tara Universe in the royal capital of Ireland of that time.
There is a saying, some how the druid Lokru started insulting the saint, and also all Christianity in improper expressions. Naturally, devout Christians could not bear such profanity and asked God requesting to punish the pagan. Unexpectedly Lokru was lifted in the air and then fell on the ground hitting his head on a rock.
Once during Lent, Saint Patrick observed a fast for 40 days on the peak of hill Croagh Patrick. God was scared that he may die and keep his life purpose incomplete, that’s why God requested Patrick to stop the fast, but he agreed for this under three conditions: The Irish people should not live always under pressure, the country may be submerged 7 years before the end of the world to avoid destruction and Patrick himself can judge all on the last day. After this, people started calling this hill as Croagh Patrick.
Every year dozens of thousands of pilgrims, most of them without shoes, climb to the saint hill "Croagh Patrick", with a height of 765m above sea level. Tradition says that Saint Patrick on this hill only performed one of his wonders – ruled all the snakes of Ireland to assemble at his legs, and then he expelled them.
According to legend, one huge and cunning snake did not want to leave the Emerald Island. The saint was forced to use a ruse. He built a huge box and told the snake that at any cost it cannot go into that box. The stubborn reptile surrendered to the contradictory sense and started to bet with the missionary. After the snake entered the box, the Saint quickly closed it and threw it into the sea.
Possibly, tradition overstates everything. But there is a realistic fact – no snakes are there in Ireland (it is truth that skeptics confirm that there was no such breed there however).
Due to the mission of the Saint, Ireland has become the “Island of Saints”, land of monks and the homeland of missionaries, which spread Christianity in other countries. There are indications that they reached the present Russian land. An autobiography of Patrick “Confession”, one message and the prayer “Board of Saint Patrick” (“entreaty of the deer”) are from the scriptures of Saint Patrick. According to the legend, the Saint read this prayer when he went along with his followers besides an ambush, which was built by a pagan king with the wish to disturb Patrick's mission. Instead of travelers, soldiers in the ambush could see only a group of deer passing. As per devout beliefs, those who repeat the prayer will be protected from any evil.
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