BOOKENDS 232 E. Ridgewood Ave.Ridgewood, NJ 07450201/445-0726(Fax) 201/[email protected]
Jose Canseco Tuesday, April 1st – 3:30pm Former Slugging Outfielder with the Oakland A’s and controversial Author, Jose Canseco will sign his latest Blockbuster: Vindicated!
Julie Andrews Tuesday, April 1st – 7:00pm Hollywood Icon known for her roles as Mary Poppins and the Sound of Music, Julie Andrews will sign: Home: A Memoir Of My Early Years… don’t miss this legend!!
Gene Wilder Wednesday, April 2nd – 7:00pm Star of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, Blazing Saddles, and Young Frankenstein, Gene Wilder will sign: The Woman Who Wouldn’t.
Linda Francis Lee Thursday, April 3rd – 7:00pm Former Texas Junior Leaguer, Debutante and author of the wickedly funny, THE DEVIL IN THE JUNIOR LEAGUE, Linda Francis Lee will discuss and sign her newest release, THE EX-DEBUTANTE. You really do not want to miss this one!
Mary Higgins Clark and Carol Higgins Clark Wednesday, April 9th – 7:00pm Mother and Daughter NY Times Best Selling dynamic duo of Mary Higgins Clark and Carol Higgins Clark will discuss and sign their latest thrillers: Where Are You Now? and Zapped: Regan Reilly Mystery Series #11!
Jesse “The Body” Ventura Thursday, April 10th – 6:30pm Former WWE Superstar and Former Governor of Minnesota, Jesse “The Body” Ventura will sign his new book: Don’t Start The Revolution Without Me. This is a “once in a lifetime opportunity” to meet this Legend!
Harlan Coben Sunday, April 13th – 2:00pm Ridgewood’s own New York Bestselling Author, Harlan Coben will discuss and sign his latest thriller: Hold Tight!
>A report on math education fuels the debate about the Singapore model. What is it–and would it work here? Peg Tyre Newsweek Web Exclusive Updated: 4:33 PM ET Mar 14, 2008
This week, after two years of deliberation, the National Mathematics Advisory Panel released their report aimed at improving math education in this country. And you could almost hear the sound of textbooks–that heavy one in your kid’s backpack, and a stack of high-stakes math tests, the kind your kid take every year–landing in the garbage can with a thud.
The advisory panel, made up of 24 educators and mathematicians, is all for textbooks and testing. In fact, the report specifically endorses regular math assessment. But after months of hearings, the panel was unequivocal that we need to change the way math is being taught–and the way we test it. Right now, it’s simply too broad, too unfocused, repetitious and, in the end, treated too superficially. Instead, the report recommends, “the mathematics curriculum in Grades PreK-8 should be streamlined and should emphasize a well-defined set of the most critical topics in the grades.” Teachers should focus on skills like computing with whole numbers, fractions, geometry and measurement. Most importantly, those skills should be taught in a coherent sequence so that by late middle school, more students have a proper foundation from which to unravel the elegant puzzles of algebra. “Students who complete Algebra II are twice as likely to graduate from college compared to students with less mathematical preparation,” the report says.
Which means that a lot of states are going to have to start scrambling. In most places, math standards, which are determined by the state and sometimes the district, are a hodgepodge of as many as a hundred different topics related to math: word problems, computation exercises, probability games. And teachers are required to cover them all in a single year. Textbooks, which are written to follow state standards, are also overlong and often incoherent. Take that math book out of your kid’s backpack and look at it. It’s likely to be a massive tome that includes chapter after chapter with photographs, puzzles, data charts, “Did You Know” factoids and even a few games. And the yearly assessments are often just as incoherent.
Instead, states need to figure out what’s crucial, when to teach it, and make sure teachers follow the formula. “The conversation needs to be, at every grade level, ‘What’s important here?’ ” says Francis Skip Fennell, president of the National Council of Teachers of Math, which came up with their own pared-down guidelines for math instruction in 2006, which strongly influenced the math panel’s recommendations.
The findings of the panel come when international assessments show U.S. students rapidly falling behind other developing countries. A 2007 assessment found that 15-year-olds in the U.S. ranked 25th out of 30 developed nations in computation, problem solving and math literacy. The panel was convened in 2006 by President Bush to address concerns about the lack of homegrown mathematicians, engineers and scientists.
The panel’s report tries to defuse factional tension between proponents of new math, fuzzy math, back-to-basics math and the like. The report says teacher-directed approaches (the skills-and-drills method) or student-centered approaches (based on individual or group exploration of math concepts) each have a place.
At the same time, the report will provide momentum to the small but increasingly influential group of math researchers and educators who see the curriculum used in Singapore, often called Singapore Math, as the gold standard. Singapore math is very lean, says Charles Patton, a software developer at SRI International and math-education researcher who is working with Singapore’s National Institute of Education. The Singapore curriculum flows coherently from one subject to another, culminating in algebra. “If you flip through the pages of an American math textbook and a Singapore math textbook, you begin to understand just how much thought and effort went into sequencing and wording. It is a very powerful and well-engineered tool,” he says.
Since 2006, when the NCTM published its guidelines, several states have begun looking at ways to simplify their math curriculum. But Patton cautions against schools simply grafting Singapore Math textbooks onto their already existing math program. Singapore’s teachers are trained by a single institution, which also provides the math curriculum, tests and textbooks. Teachers get about 100 hours of professional development to work on their instructional skills. “If you simply drop a Singapore math textbook into your math program,” says Patton, “it is bound to fail.” URL: https://www.newsweek.com/id/123326
>A recently discovered document by the Concerned Residents of Ridgewood created by Valley’s Architect’s TRO Jung Brannen . It is part of a larger record that the architects are using to track the negotiations between Valley and the Village Professionals. Notice they use words like Compromise, Proposed and Agreed. All words that are normally associated with negotiating. They also name the Village Planner as holding-out for a ratio of 4.2 car spaces after Valley at first offered 3.9 and then later offered 4.0. This shows that Valley is constantly changing the “margins” of their proposal to make it conform to feedback from the Village Professionals.
Irrespective of what the Planning Board might say, Valley’s professionals believe they are negotiating with the Professionals from the Planning Board! For Valley this has the effect of being a backdoor deal, avoiding the more transparent public process. It is expected that Planning Board professionals will give their “option” on the Valley proposal on April 1st. Then it is up to the Planning Board and Village Council.
>Your community passion must be commended. Yes, it is fuzzy math…to adults. When taught in its entirety, students get it. So is this about us as adults and what we know or about student achievement?
Visit What Work Clearinghouse, www.w-w-c.org and justforkids.org. See what successful schools are doing to improve student achievement. EM is being used in quite a few places.
The big problem with EM is the sprial. It makes all of us uncomfortable because it is outside of what we know. We are uncomfortable because WE have to change our way of thinking that has served us well for decades. It goes to the very heart of what we know about school. So does using the Internet, IPODs, PDAs, or the fact that children are extremely disruptive at school and even at home. It is a difficult shift for teachers, parents, and the community.
But are they not worth making a change? Mathematics is not just arithmetic, even at the kindergarten level. In kindergarten, students visit concepts in all mathematical strands: numbers and operations, geometry, algebra, data analysis and statistics, and probability. That’s real mathematics that they learn.
No, they don’t know the facts like we would like them to know them. If you look at the standardized assessments, it doesn’t seem to be a priority either. But they have strategies for performing operations mentally and/or using tools that are amazing.
Before you condemn a program, learn about it. We were ready to give up on it, too. What we realized is that this program, this type of program is not going anywhere. NCLB has ensured us that not only will spiraling programs stay, there will be more. So we decided to accept and embrace it fully, then we would decide for ourselves. The results: we made 14% growth in mathematics scores!
The more we learned, using program and the Teacher Reference Book, the more we realized we did not understand at a deeper level. We memorized information when we were in school! We have a cohort of teachers from this school earning endorsements in Middle School Mathematics. Even the Pre-K teacher is going! The classes are not about EM but about mathematical concepts and the teaching and learning of mathematics. Our grade level meeting discussions are deeper and our conversations are always peppered with questions and things we have learned.
With parent workshops, our parents are starting to learn about mathematics, not just the program. We are honest about our struggles. It sometimes difficult to understand the point of some lessons. We use the EM website, email EM for clarity and talk about it. Most of the time, it is a topic we learned by memorizing years ago and now we need to understand it conceptually.
Ask a second grader with a teacher who is fully implementing EM what it means to multiply. The depth of their explanation and the ways they can prove it are amazing.
With FULL, UNSUPPLEMENTED, and SUPPORTED implementation you will get the results you are looking for from this program. Teachers will not do well with this program without intense professional development in their first two years of use.
Take the time and really find out what this type of program does for learning. Understand it has it draw backs, but so does NCLB. For all of the problems with it, the good outways the bad in working towards a quality education for all students.
Montclair State University Receives $6.8 Million in Grants to Lead Cutting-edge Collaborations to Improve Science and Math Education in New Jersey Schools: The Prudential Foundation, National Science Foundation and New Jersey Department of Education to Provide Funding
“…”We’re absolutely thrilled to have Montclair State as a partner,” said East Rutherford Schools Superintendent Gayle Strauss, Ph.D. “Our schools have been struggling to raise test scores, as the number of students in ESL (English as a Second Language) and special education in a district our size has a large impact on our overall scores. This program will target those populations.”
Teacher preparation and recruitment will be a major part of the answer to this challenge, and Montclair State’s collaborations with the private sector, the state government, a federal agency and numerous local school districts illustrate that the challenge will require extensive resources and a broad array of partnerships.
Professor West said the participating districts were selected in part for the teaching challenge presented by the district’s fast-changing, multi-ethnic and multi-lingual student populations. All the communities have experienced an influx of immigrants from Eastern Europe, Asia, South Asia and Latin America. To meet the challenge, West predicted that the program fellows and middle school teachers would develop more hands-on classroom activities, workshops and field projects that transcend language barriers.”…”
Just what the doctor ordered for Ridgewood, right. Our teachers are so “ill-prepared” and our students so “challenged” that we have to run for help to a local university partner. Thanks Regina. This is a real stomach-churning moment for all of us.
> Despite spending $50K in late 2004 to construct a traffic safety speed table and cutout on South Pleasant Avenue near the Somerville School, Village Council members are still very unhappy with motor vehicle traffic flow and parking in the area.
On March 12, Ordinance 3108 was introduced by Council members. This ordinance, if approved, will ban all stopping and standing along the west side of South Pleasant Avenue between the hours of 7:00 AM and 9:00 AM and 2:00 PM and 4:00 PM.
So, regardless of the new traffic safety speed table and cutout, which were constructed to facilitate drop offs and pick ups on the west side of South Pleasant Avenue, Council members plan to ban this practice.
The Fly thinks this will create even more of a traffic mess in the area. What do you think?
Saturday, March 22, 2008
Last Updated Saturday March 22, 2008, EDT 9:48 AMBY BOB GROVESThe cost of Valley Hospital’s proposed expansion would threaten Ridgewood’s taxpayers and the future of the facility, critics charged.
Valley’s $750 million plan to replace two of its older buildings with three new ones over the next decade could balloon, with interest, to $1 billion — and that would require the hospital to earn an additional $40 million a year for 25 years to pay it off, said Paul Gould. He is a member and spokesman of Concerned Residents of Ridgewood, a neighborhood group that has opposed Valley’s expansion plans for months.
“Where will it come from?” Gould said. “Will we end up with another Pascack Valley?” The Westwood hospital went bankrupt and closed last year after building a $50 million addition.
On the contrary, Valley’s plan “is vital to its success,” said Maureen Curran Kleinman, a hospital spokeswoman.
“If Valley is not allowed to renew over time, we will not be the hospital that the community will choose for its medical care in the future,” Kleinman said in a statement. “It will impede our ability to attract the best physicians and staff, and the hospital would be at risk of facing the same unfortunate fate as Pascack Valley and many other New Jersey hospitals that have been forced to close their doors.”
The Ridgewood Planning Board is deciding whether to approve separate requests, by Valley and by Concerned Residents, for changes in the village’s hospital zone ordinances and master plan. Those changes would either allow the hospital to expand or preserve the surrounding neighborhood.
Beyond financial concerns about the hospital’s plan, Gould and other members of his group worry how much Valley’s expansion would cost the village.
“Taxpayers would absorb the additional infrastructure costs of roads, fire and police, which are paid for by the residents of Ridgewood,” he said.
If, for example, Valley increased its occupancy rate from its current 87 percent to 100 percent, to help pay for the expansion, that could add 80,000 car trips on village streets to the hospital per year, on top of 600,000 vehicle visits already made there annually, Gould said.
While other area hospitals have expanded or renovated in recent years, Valley’s $750 million plan is one of the most ambitious.
Gould’s group is worried that Valley will suffer the same fate as Pascack Valley, which succumbed to a $100 million annual debt after it opened an addition. The hospital closed in November.
“We do not want another bankrupt hospital,” Gould told the Planning Board during a public hearing this week.
But Valley officials say the hospital is not in financial danger.
Valley would finance the first phase of its expansion, estimated at $420 million, through tax-exempt bonds, fund-raising and existing cash, “as is typical financing for not-for-profit hospital projects,” Kleinman said.
Even after the project is complete, Valley’s debt will be “manageable and moderate in comparison to other hospitals,” Kleinman said.
Gould conceded that Valley “is very profitable today,” he said. At a time when many of the state’s hospitals are struggling financially, Valley hospital has $225 million in cash and investments and a $46 million debt, according to tax filings. Revenue increases by 8 percent each year, Gould said.
But to pay for the hospital to pay for the expansion, Gould said, net patient revenue would have to increase by an additional 8 percent a year. How will the hospital do that when it’s only adding three more beds to its current 451? he asked.
Valley officials have repeatedly said their building plan is being done to bring the hospital up to modern medical standards, not to bring in more patients. Will the hospital have to increase what it charges patients? the neighborhood group asked.
“Valley’s charges are among the absolute lowest of any hospital in the state,” Kleinman said. “Even after the project is in place we will still have charges well below other hospitals in New Jersey.”
The neighborhood group also claims that the Planning Board, through its attorney and other professional advisers, has already been negotiating with Valley officials about some terms of the expansion before it has been approved.
David Nicholson, chairman of the Planning Board, said its professionals had met with Valley officials, but denied that they had “negotiated” any of the proposal.
“The implication that this matter is already decided is simply not true,” Nicholson said.
Kleinman said the hospital met with village professionals to discuss the hospital ordinance and make a recommendation to the Planning Board, but not to negotiate terms of the proposed expansion.
>Bids Requested For Additional Flood Prevention Measures At Village Hall
VILLAGE OF RIDGEWOOD – NOTICE TO BIDDERS
Sealed bid proposals will be received by the Village of Ridgewood, in the 3RD Floor Conference Room, Village Hall, 131 North Maple Avenue , Ridgewood, New Jersey 07451, on Wednesday, April 16, 2008 at 10:00 am, prevailing time, and then publicly opened and read aloud for the following project: Village Hall Flood Protection Project
The work of the Contract shall be to construct and furnish the following flood protection measures for Village Hall:
“Approximately 80 linear feet of 3-foot tall stucco finished reinforced concrete wall.
“Approximately 70 linear feet of 3-foot tall stucco finished face, formed reinforced concrete wall.
“Two 3-foot tall stucco finished reinforced concrete end pillars with seating benches for mounting Doordam panels.
“Approximately 100 linear feet of Doordam Panels with mounting pillars, mullions, brackets, and all necessary appurtenances for a complete installation for flood protection.
“Site landscaping and sidewalk restoration, as needed.
>According to the New Testament, Christ was crucified on the eve of Passover and shortly afterward rose from the dead. In consequence, the Easter festival commemorated Christ’s resurrection. In time, a serious difference over the date of the Easter festival arose among Christians. Those of Jewish origin celebrated the resurrection immediately following the Passover festival, which, according to their Babylonian lunar calendar, fell on the evening of the full moon (the 14th day in the month of Nisan, the first month of the year); by their reckoning, Easter, from year to year, fell on different days of the week.
Christians of Gentile origin, however, wished to commemorate the resurrection on the first day of the week, Sunday; by their method, Easter occurred on the same day of the week, but from year to year it fell on different dates. An important historical result of the difference in reckoning the date of Easter was that the Christian churches in the East, which were closer to the birthplace of the new religion and in which old traditions were strong, observed Easter according to the date of the Passover festival. The churches of the West, descendants of Greco-Roman civilization, celebrated Easter on a Sunday.
Rulings of the Council of Nicaea on the Date of Easter
Constantine I, Roman emperor, convoked the Council of Nicaea in 325. The council unanimously ruled that the Easter festival should be celebrated throughout the Christian world on the first Sunday after the full moon following the vernal equinox; and that if the full moon should occur on a Sunday and thereby coincide with the Passover festival, Easter should be commemorated on the Sunday following. Coincidence of the feasts of Easter and Passover was thus avoided.
The Council of Nicaea also decided that the calendar date of Easter was to be calculated at Alexandria, then the principal astronomical center of the world. The accurate determination of the date, however, proved an impossible task in view of the limited knowledge of the 4th-century world. The principal astronomical problem involved was the discrepancy, called the epact, between the solar year and the lunar year. The chief calendric problem was a gradually increasing discrepancy between the true astronomical year and the Julian calendar then in use.
Later Dating Methods
Ways of fixing the date of the feast tried by the church proved unsatisfactory, and Easter was celebrated on different dates in different parts of the world. In 387, for example, the dates of Easter in France and Egypt were 35 days apart. About 465, the church adopted a system of calculation proposed by the astronomer Victorinus (fl. 5th cent.), who had been commissioned by Pope Hilarius (r. 461–68) to reform the calendar and fix the date of Easter. Elements of his method are still in use. Refusal of the British and Celtic Christian churches to adopt the proposed changes led to a bitter dispute between them and Rome in the 7th century. Reform of the Julian calendar in 1582 by Pope Gregory XIII, through adoption of the Gregorian calendar, eliminated much of the difficulty in fixing the date of Easter and in arranging the ecclesiastical year; since 1752, when the Gregorian calendar was also adopted in Great Britain and Ireland, Easter has been celebrated on the same day in the Western part of the Christian world. The Eastern churches, however, which did not adopt the Gregorian calendar, commemorate Easter on a Sunday either preceding or following the date observed in the West. Occasionally the dates coincide; the most recent times were in 1865 and 1963.
Because the Easter holiday affects a varied number of secular affairs in many countries, it has long been urged as a matter of convenience that the movable dates of the festival be either narrowed in range or replaced by a fixed date in the manner of Christmas. In 1923 the problem was referred to the Holy See, which has found no canonical objection to the proposed reform. In 1928 the British Parliament enacted a measure allowing the Church of England to commemorate Easter on the first Sunday after the second Saturday in April. Despite these steps toward reform, Easter continues to be a movable feast.
So what to do when you dog has to go? If your down town be aware that many merchants in town maintain the flower beds around the trees in town and it makes there job of beautifying the town more difficult if you allow your dogs to relieve themselves in those beds, yes its not illegal but its just plain rude, so lets work together and keep the Village of Ridgewood a beautiful place.……
My name is Richard . I grew up in Ridgewood, moved away, went to Georgetwon and Columbia B-School, found myself a wife and moved her back to Ridgewood with me in 2005.
Between your blog and other sources I have learned what a mess the BOE and the math curriculum are and I have just one question that I hope you can help me with: How did this all come to pass? I came back to Ridgewood late in the game and things had already been moving.
Where is the acting superintendent? Why did the new guy who was hired disappear? How did the elementary schools end up with 3 different math curricula? Why did the BOE feel the need to change the old (traditional?) math system?
I guess, just like at my company, when people barge in my office with a problem I find it easier to make our way back to the light when I know how we got into the mess to start with.
If you don’t know all these answers maybe you can point me to someone else who may. I trust your judgement based on all I have read on your blog and I appreciate that you keep the thing up at all!
>The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight… but They Can Do Damage Anyway
By Steve Lonegan
It is clear that the big-government radicals that are running Trenton will stop at nothing to advance their vision of an even bigger nanny state. So much so that they will pass drastically flawed and dangerous bills that will destroy New Jersey’s competitive business climate in favor of emotion based, job destroying politics. This time, however, they got caught.
New Jersey taxpayers will be expected to fork over another $130 million in new taxes to seed the launch of the radical Paid Family Leave bill and small businesses already struggling in the nation’s worst business environment will be sacrificed on the alter of entitlement.
The destructive Paid Family Leave bill will go back to the Senate for another round of hearings and voting. The bill, which allows every single worker in the state six weeks Paid Leave for virtually any reason at all with pay of up to $550, is so deficient it would result in crippling lawsuits for New Jersey’s beleaguered small businesses.
After prompting from conservative legislators, AFP Citizen Activists and Members of the NJBIA, Attorney General Ann Milgram issued an opinion stating the bill is too vague and opens the small business community to costly litigation. The bill’s proponents are so committed to advancing their socialist agenda and expanding the entitlement state they will stop at nothing to advance what they consider the “Common Good,” no matter what the cost.
Left to their own devices, the backers of this bill would have sought a way to by-pass Senate rules and shove this bill through this past Monday. Thanks to Senator Tom Kean, Republican Minority Leader, it became obvious the required thirty votes would not be there for an emergency vote.
The real lesson here is the willingness of those we elect to represent us to railroad destructive legislation past the voters in order to gain favor from state worker union leaders. It is impossible to believe the Senators who voted to pass the dangerous PFL legislation did not realize the potential for trouble. Set aside the basic fact this is bad policy—the fact that they were willing to ignore clear issues of litigation and costly business destroying lawsuits for the bill’s benefit reveals a far more insidious motive. Even legal laymen were questioning the bill’s disastrous side effects, but the Trenton gang did not care. They just wanted to gain favor from those labor union bosses looking down from the gallery.
They were caught this time. The Senate will have to vote again. Now that we have revealed their lack of consideration for the business community and taxpayers, we must convince more of our taxpayers to pick up the phone and call Senators who voted yes and get them to change their votes.
Here they are. Call them now!
JOHN H. ADLER – Democrat (856)-489-3442 BILL BARONI – Republican (609)-631-9988 BARBARA BUONO – Democrat (732)-205-1372 RICHARD J. CODEY – Democrat (973)-731-6770 SANDRA B. CUNNINGHAM – Democrat (201)-451-5100 NIA H. GILL, ESQ. – Democrat (973)-509-0388 JOHN A. GIRGENTI – Democrat (973)-427-1229 ROBERT M. GORDON – Democrat (201)-703-9779 RAYMOND J. LESNIAK – Democrat (908)-624-0880 FRED H. MADDEN, JR. – Democrat (856)-232-6700 DANA REDD – Democrat (856)-384-5862 RONALD L. RICE – Democrat (973)-371-5665 M. TERESA RUIZ – Democrat (973)-484-1000 NICHOLAS J. SACCO – Democrat (201)-295-0200 PAUL A. SARLO – Democrat (201)-804-8118 NICHOLAS P. SCUTARI – Democrat (908)-587-0404 BOB SMITH – Democrat (732)-752-0770 BRIAN P. STACK – Democrat (201)-330-3233 STEPHEN M. SWEENEY – Democrat (856)-251-9801 SHIRLEY K. TURNER – Democrat (609)-530-3277 LORETTA WEINBERG – Democrat (201)-928-0100 JOSEPH F. VITALE – Democrat (732)-855-7441 JIM WHELAN – Democrat (609)-383-1388
>”As far as the budget goes, you should give Bombace credit for suggesting that they not take the full 4% increase in the budget.
Doesn’t the BOE realize that higher school budget=higher property taxes. New assessments, lower home equity, lower stock accounts, lower interest rates on savings = we don’t want to pay another dime for tutors because you can’t teach our kids math.
Are we all so wealthy in this town that we can take a recession and pay higher school taxes and pay for tutors for afterschooling? “
Saint Patrick is believed to have been born in the late fourth century, and is often confused with Palladius, a bishop who was sent by Pope Celestine in 431 to be the first bishop to the Irish believers in Christ.
Saint Patrick was the patron saint and national apostle of Ireland who is credited with bringing christianity to Ireland. Most of what is known about him comes from his two works, the Confessio, a spiritual autobiography, and his Epistola, a denunciation of British mistreatment of Irish christians. Saint Patrick described himself as a “most humble-minded man, pouring forth a continuous paean of thanks to his Maker for having chosen him as the instrument whereby multitudes who had worshipped idols and unclean things had become the people of God.”
Saint Patrick is most known for driving the snakes from Ireland. It is true there are no snakes in Ireland, but there probably never have been – the island was separated from the rest of the continent at the end of the Ice Age. As in many old pagan religions, serpent symbols were common and often worshipped. Driving the snakes from Ireland was probably symbolic of putting an end to that pagan practice. While not the first to bring christianity to Ireland, it is Patrick who is said to have encountered the Druids at Tara and abolished their pagan rites. The story holds that he converted the warrior chiefs and princes, baptizing them and thousands of their subjects in the “Holy Wells” that still bear this name.
There are several accounts of Saint Patrick’s death. One says that Patrick died at Saul, Downpatrick, Ireland, on March 17, 460 A.D. His jawbone was preserved in a silver shrine and was often requested in times of childbirth, epileptic fits, and as a preservative against the “evil eye.” Another account says that St. Patrick ended his days at Glastonbury, England and was buried there. The Chapel of St. Patrick still exists as part of Glastonbury Abbey. Today, many Catholic places of worship all around the world are named after St. Patrick, including cathedrals in New York and Dublin city
Why Saint Patrick’s Day? Saint Patrick’s Day has come to be associated with everything Irish: anything green and gold, shamrocks and luck. Most importantly, to those who celebrate its intended meaning, St. Patrick’s Day is a traditional day for spiritual renewal and offering prayers for missionaries worldwide.
So, why is it celebrated on March 17th? One theory is that that is the day that St. Patrick died. Since the holiday began in Ireland, it is believed that as the Irish spread out around the world, they took with them their history and celebrations. The biggest observance of all is, of course, in Ireland. With the exception of restaurants and pubs, almost all businesses close on March 17th. Being a religious holiday as well, many Irish attend mass, where March 17th is the traditional day for offering prayers for missionaries worldwide before the serious celebrating begins.
In American cities with a large Irish population, St. Patrick’s Day is a very big deal. Big cities and small towns alike celebrate with parades, “wearing of the green,” music and songs, Irish food and drink, and activities for kids such as crafts, coloring and games. Some communities even go so far as to dye rivers or streams green!
