The literal definition of a leprechaun deprived from Irish Folklore is “a mischievous elf.” So why this “mischievous elf’’ so heavily apparent in the St. Patrick’s holiday, and what is it? According to emeraldisle.ie , “A man once caught a leprechaun and was led to a tree in a forest under which the leprechaun swore his treasure was buried, but having no shovel with him he took off his red coat and hung it there to mark the spot. Upon his return his mouth fell open, because every tree in the forest had a red coat hung on it!”
This story has been told since the 8th century in Irish culture. Some Irish communities telling a story of how leprechauns traveled in little groups, and communicated through tunnels. Overall, the story of the leprechaun is huge in Irish culture and folklore. Another translation for leprechaun is ‘’small body’’ which evidently makes sense because of how the character is depicted as a small ‘’fairy-elf’’ creature that wears a green suit, big boots, a big green top hat, with his big ginger-orange colored beard.
The creatures also are usually seen with or looking for a big pot of gold. The old Irish legend has it that if you catch these mischievous elves, they grant you a wish but they are extremely hard to catch due to their cleverness and trickery. Now how does all of this tie into St. Patrick’s Day? Well the legend also states that wearing green makes you invisible to leprechauns – bet you didn’t know that! On St. Patricks day everyone wears green, and everyone who doesn’t gets pinched. This ‘’pinching’’ according to the national geographic is a tool of trickery leprechauns use. This St. Patrick’s day, are YOU gonna be wearing green?
Useful link:
https://kids.nationalgeographic.com/celebrations/article/st-patricks-
day#:~:text=Leprechauns%20are%20actually%20one%20reason,pinch%20anyone%20they%2
0can%20see.
