St. Patrick's Day Shamrock Search

St. Patrick's day is right around the corner and I thought I'd share a fun little activity from one of my favorite books, Mrs. Sharp's Traditions by Sarah Ban Breathnach (she wrote Simple Abudance if the name sounds familiar). I highly recommend any homemakers with children get a copy of this book! It's hardcover and beautiful and has tons of Victorian illustrations. The book is written from the point of view of Mrs. Sharp, a fictional Victorian woman, and is organized by month and has fun little family activities, recipes, and historical information for each month. I absolutely adore this book! I borrowed it from the library so much that I decided to get my own copy. It sells for $30 but I got it used for a few dollars online. I can't wait until Annabelle is older so I can start doing the neat things in the book with her!

For St. Patrick's day, the book gives the history of the holiday, a poem, recipes for colcannon (a potato, cabbage, leek dish) and soda bread and the following activities:

Mrs. Sharp gets little pots of shamrocks and "plants" them in the yard and has the children go search for them the day before St. Patrick's day. Because everything in March is generally still brown and lifeless (maybe not this March!), the little bits of green should be easily found. On St. Patrick's day, she sends her children to school with shamrock-shaped sandwiches and they invite their friends over to search for leprechauns and their gold after school. She hides bags of gold-covered chocolate coins for the children to find. Alas, no leprechauns will be found but the children will have fun searching for the gold!

I like how Ban Breathnach brings a moral to these activities, "Celebrating St. Patrick's Day can help remind everyone that when we search for the end of the rainbow, we often find the pot of gold in our own backyard." Amen to that!

Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone! What will you be doing to celebrate?