The Real Reason We Celebrate St. Patrick's Day

Today is supposedly St. Patrick's Day, a day where people celebrate the undeserved fame of the man who is wrongly credited for driving the snakes out of Ireland—a country that is believed to have been snake-free since the end of the last ice age when the ice melted away and left no path for snakes to travel to the island nation.  Can you believe that nonsense?!

I could, like many other bloggers do, post a history of St. Pat's Day or a list of debunked St. Pat's myths and misunderstandings (like this).  But that would only further reinforce the false belief that anyone still genuinely wants to celebrate a saint from the 5th century.  Everyone's jumping on that bandwagon!  Even Google is honoring St. Patrick with a Google Doodle:

I swear it just amazes me the stories people will invent to hide their real desire: to celebrate the beauty and awesomeness of the world's natural redheads!  (And also to drink beer dyed green.)

So, as I don my GREEN and ORANGE—yes, that's right, both of them—to head out to run my errands today, I leave you with this collections of Facts & Myths About Redheads.

Happy Redhead Appreciation & Awareness Day!

○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○

• Professor Jonathan Rees conducted a study of redheads at Edinburgh University.He identified the"gene for red hair" the melanocortin 1 receptor (MC1R), found on the 16th chromosome. He found that this single gene was responsible for red hair.
• Red hair is a genetic mutation.
• Red hair is seen on the heads of only four percent of people. Most of these exist in the U.K., the Republic of Ireland, and Australia.
• The highest percentage of natural redheads in the world is in Scotland (13%), followed closely by Ireland with 10%. In the US, about 2% of the population are natural redheads.
• There is a belief that redheads are prone to industrial deafness. This actually could be true as the melanocytes are found in the middle ear.
• The color Green tempers red. Look at a color chart. This is why redheads are taught as children to wear lots of green. As if red hair is a shameful state of being.
• In the early 1600s, at the end of the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, the belief of Pixies (aka fairies) emerged in southwest England. They were then and have since been strongly associated with red hair for their mischievousness and otherworldly talents. 
• A 2002 study found that redhead are harder to sedate than any other people requiring twenty percent more anesthesia. Inadequate doses cause people to wake up during surgery and have increased recall of procedures. (I can vouch that study is accurate)
• Adults have about 120,000 hairs on their head; redheads have fewer, blondes have more, brunettes have the most.
• Harvard Dermatologist Madhu Pathak calls redheads "three-time losers" because their red pigment is an inadequate filter of sunlight and their skin is more susceptible to sunburn, skin cancer and wrinkling with age. Wear your sun block!!! We are not losers though.
• Red headedness is, genetically speaking, a recessive trait. It may appear after several generations of darker hair.
• Redheads don't turn grey. Red hair turns sandy, then white. They are also found to loose their color later in life than people carrying other hair colors.
• The perception of the color red, scientifically speaking, enhances the viewers metabolism and increases heart rate and respiration.
• The first human redheads walked this earth about 50,000 years ago in Africa and then spread throughout Northern Europe.
• The country name of Russia means "land of reds" in honor of a redheaded Viking by the name of Rurik.
• Red-haired Clowns have their origins in Russia.
• From the 1930s to 1950s in Cassville, Missouri, there existed a women's basketball team called “The Redheads.” For a while they became the talk of the country and a much sought after exhibition team compared to the Harlem Globe trotters. It is important to note that they were not natural red heads, at least not all of them.
• In the late 16th century, the fat of a redheaded man was an essential ingredient for poison.
• Adams first wife Lilith, always depicted as a redhead, is known to have refused to lie beneath Adam during sexual intercourse, and stated” why should I lie beneath you when I am your equal since both of us were created from dust” –Patai
• At St. Paul’s cathedral in London, figurines tell the story of the fall in the Garden of Eden. Adam points one hand to the forbidden fruit and the other to a golden haired Eve. Then the arch angel drives them from the garden. Adam with his fig leaf loops his arm around Eve who is now cowering and sporting a main of long red hair.
• Similarly in the paintings of the Sistine Chapel in 1874, Michelangelo's Temptation depicts a brown haired Eve being handed a red apple by a red headed bare breasted serpent woman (Satan manifested as woman of course carries red hair). In the adjacent fresco Eve is thrown out of the garden with a shameful face and a twist of red hair.
• Eve's red hair is seen as the stain of sin like the original scarlet letter. Later her son, Cain, will bare the red hair and also a fall from grace.
• The first redheaded British monarch was a woman. Boudicca was a Celtic warrior was led her people, the Icenti, against the Romans in the C.E. 60s.
• Belief that redheads are witches is a folk belief in Germanic culture. From 1483-1784 thousands of suspected witches were nearly always stripped and searched for “marks of the devil”. These included any “abnormality” such as freckles, moles, warts, and birthmarks. Red hair was certainly considered an abnormality. Considering the freckle factor for redheads this was a deadly and shocking horror. Somewhere around 45,000 women were tortured and murdered usually by burning at the stake or by drowning.
• The Egyptians regarded the color as so unlucky that they had a ceremony in which they burned red-headed maidens alive to wipe out the tint- Claudie De Lys.
• British Press recently reported that that the MC1R (redhead gene) will be used in DNA testing to rule out, or in, if suspected killers in crime scenes are redheads. This will narrow a search if the gene is found to a small percentage of perpetrators. The hope is that next skin color and physical features will be detectable.-Marion Roach
• In central Africa, Cameroon's redheaded albinos, called Nguenguerous, are believed also to come by this color by menstrual intercourse. The UN and other world organizations have studied and advocated for their rights as there have been allegations of the ritual murders in some regions of Africa.
• Archaeological digs in the Chinese desert of Takla Makan found mummified redheads dating back 3,000 years.
• An Irish judge in 2001 fined a man for disorderly conduct stating “I am a firm believer that hair coloring has an effect on temper and your coloring suggests you have a temper.”
• Redheads have always been thought untrustworthy. Judas is most always depicted as a redhead displaying the prejudice against red hair.
• The Romans kept red haired slaves, and at a higher price.
• Adolph Hitler reportedly banned the marriages of two redheads as he feared their children would be “deviant offspring”.
• “Ill beat you like a redheaded stepchild”. This phrase was born out of the American south and implies the status of illegitimate offspring with a white master.
• At some point in history Brahmans were forbidden to marry redheads.
• In France, to be redheaded is thought to be a fate so dire that some women have formed a “Proud to be Red” association.
• The Bible states in I Corinthians 11:15 that a woman's long hair is a glory to her because it can be used as a covering. Yet in Song of Solomon 4:1 it states that it is an object that invites desire. I guess there is no losing.
• Bees are thought to sting redheads more than others.
• In Denmark it is an honor to have a redheaded child. (One MORE reason this is the country I'd move to if I could!)
• In Corsica, if you pass a redhead in the street you are to spit and turn around.
• In Poland, if you pass three red-heads you'll win the state lottery-Sylvia Stevez
• In Greek Mythology, redheads turn into Vampires when they die.
• During the Spanish Inquisition flame colored hair was evidence that its owner had stolen the fire of hell and had to be burned as a witch.
• Russian tradition declares that red hair is both a sign that a person holds a fiery temper and craziness.
• A Russian Proverb warns “There was never a saint with red hair.”
• Want to read more?  Here's a really great blog article on Red Hair!