It has nothing to do with St. Patrick, I'll tell you that now.
For those who are baffled reading this question, let me explain...
On St. Patrick's Day (17 March), in the USA, everyone is supposed to wear Green. If you don't, you may get pinched, by anyone who dares.
Some say that if you are wearing green and you get pinched by mistake, you get to pinch back ten times.
The pinching thing is most rife among American school children. Forgetting to wear green on March 17th is the sort of mistake you don't make two years running.
When and where did this tradition start? It is not native to modern Ireland, by the way! I found it very strange, when I moved to Britain from the USA, that nobody observed any aspect of St. Patrick's Day.
One tradition is that the pinching started in the early 1700s, about the time that awareness of St. Patrick's as a holiday came to the fore, too, in Boston (in the Massachusetts colony). If you wore green it made you invisible to the Leprechauns - else they were out to pinch anyone they could see. So the pinching was to warn you about the Leprechauns.
A thoroughly pagan amendment to a nominally very Christian Saint day.
For those who are baffled reading this question, let me explain...
On St. Patrick's Day (17 March), in the USA, everyone is supposed to wear Green. If you don't, you may get pinched, by anyone who dares.
Some say that if you are wearing green and you get pinched by mistake, you get to pinch back ten times.
The pinching thing is most rife among American school children. Forgetting to wear green on March 17th is the sort of mistake you don't make two years running.
When and where did this tradition start? It is not native to modern Ireland, by the way! I found it very strange, when I moved to Britain from the USA, that nobody observed any aspect of St. Patrick's Day.
One tradition is that the pinching started in the early 1700s, about the time that awareness of St. Patrick's as a holiday came to the fore, too, in Boston (in the Massachusetts colony). If you wore green it made you invisible to the Leprechauns - else they were out to pinch anyone they could see. So the pinching was to warn you about the Leprechauns.
A thoroughly pagan amendment to a nominally very Christian Saint day.
