Happy St Patrick’s Day 2019! Google Doodle features the Celtic Triskele to celebrate Irish history

ST Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland, has been celebrated for hundreds of years and now Google has got in on the act too with its own Celtic Google Doodle.

The patron saint was a fifth-century Christian missionary and bishop of Ireland and is celebrated to this day as being emblematic of the Emerald Isle.

Why is March 17 celebrated?

Saint Patrick’s Day is observed on March 17, supposedly the date of his death.

It is celebrated inside Ireland and widely across the world as a religious and cultural holiday.

In the dioceses of Ireland, it is both a solemnity and a holy day of obligation; it is also a celebration of Ireland itself.

According to Google: “Today’s annual St Patrick’s Day Doodle by Doodler Matthew Cruickshank features the Celtic Triskele— also known as the ‘triple spiral’.

“An ancient symbol with various and diverse interpretations, over time the triskele has become an iconic symbol of Irish culture.

“One such interpretation (which is featured in today’s animated Doodle) describes the trinity as representing the three realms: land, sea, and sky.

“No matter what interpretation the ancient symbol holds for you, here’s to wishing a happy St Patrick’s day to all!”

Why do we celebrate St Patrick’s Day?

The date that St Patrick’s Day falls is thought to be the date that St Patrick died and is therefore his feast day; the day is a holy and religious day in the Catholic Church, but more recently also became a day to celebrate Ireland as a nation too.

In fact, until the 20th century, Saint Patrick’s Day celebrations were actually a bigger deal among Irish diaspora — Irish descendants living outside Ireland itself, particularly in North America.

While it’s not a legal holiday in the US, St Patrick’s Day is widely celebrated both there and also in Canada, where the longest running parade has been held in Montreal since 1884.

What is a Google Doodle?

In 1998, the search engine founders Larry and Sergey drew a stick figure behind the second ‘o’ of Google as a message to that they were out of office at the Burning Man festival and with that, Google Doodles were born.

The company decided that they should decorate the logo to mark cultural moments and it soon became clear that users really enjoyed the change to the Google homepage.

In that same year, a turkey was added to Thanksgiving and two pumpkins appeared as the ‘o’s for Halloween the following year.

Now, there is a full team of doodlers, illustrators, graphic designers, animators and classically trained artists who help create what you see on those days.

Among the Doodles published recently were ones commemorating German scientist Robert Koch, Jan Ingenhousz (who discovered photosynthesis) and the 50th anniversary of kids coding languages being introduced.

In 2017, the search giant celebrated the Autumn Equinox , which marked the official ending of summer and the coming of autumn.