One of the popular symbols of St. Patrick’s Day is the four-leaf clover know as a shamrock. It has been said that St. Patrick used to cruciform of the shamrock to educate the pagans about Christianity and convert them also according to legend St. Patrick drove the snakes out of Ireland, but according to the fossil evidence there never were any snakes in Ireland so the snakes are a symbol of paganism which he attempted to drive out of Ireland arguably pagan beliefs held in one form or another.
Another popular symbol of St. Patrick’s Day was that cobbler of the fairies known as the leprechaun. The very name leprechaun can be translated as meaning “shoemaker”. The leprechaun is a hard-working member of the fairy race. They were sometimes helpful to mortals and were well known has having gold.
One popular folk belief suggests that the leprechaun hides is stash of gold at the end of the rainbow which makes finding the pot of gold especially hard to find. If captured the leprechaun can be coerced into revealing where they hid their gold.
One story has a farmer catching a leprechaun in revealing where his stash was buried. The leprechaun showed the farmer where the pot of gold was. The farmer decided to be merciful and let the leprechaun go free. He also planted a red flag on the spot where the gold was buried. Later in the day when the farmer went to check on the spot where the gold was buried, to his astonishment he found the field covered with red flags just like the one he planted. Thus, the pot of gold was hid away forever. Th be fair the leprechaun will sometimes make shoes for mere mortals in need of shoes. Sometimes one can get into the good graces with the leprechaun, buy leaving them beer and pipe tobacco.