St. Patrick's Day Coloring Pages

March 17 is the one day of the year when everything is green. These St. Patrick's Day coloring pages bring the leprechauns, the clovers and the gold, and set them in the countryside of Ireland: stone walls, thatched cottages and sheep.

The leprechauns come first, and they are busy. One mends his boot on a mossy stone, another laces up a pair of enormous boots on a cottage doorstep, one plays a Celtic harp, one dances a jig on top of a barrel, one counts coins into a pouch on a spotted toadstool, one juggles gold coins, one peeks over the rim of an old well, one holds an umbrella under a rainbow in the rain, one rides a sheep across a field, one rides a bicycle with a basket of clover, one fishes from a stone bridge, one sits in a shamrock teacup, one rocks on the porch with a cat at his feet, and one pulls a cart with a heavy cauldron. A cute little leprechaun hugs a four-leaf clover as big as himself, and a portrait shows a leprechaun's face under his tall hat, his beard curled in spirals.

The symbols fill the rest. A pot of gold spills down a hill, another sits at the end of a rainbow while a bunny sniffs it, and gold coins are stacked beside a hat and a cane on a stump. A rainbow arches over the rolling hills, a tall buckled hat rests in the grass, a pair of buckled shoes sprouts clover, and a lucky horseshoe is nailed to a tree. There is a big four-leaf clover, a field of clover with one four-leaf plant hidden among the rest, a snail on a clover leaf, a shamrock kite, a garland of paper clovers between two birches, and a wheelbarrow heaped with clover. The Irish countryside has a thatched cottage, a sheep by a stone wall and two more at a farm gate, and a harp standing in a clover meadow. For patient hands, a shamrock mandala, a frame of clovers and horseshoes, and four Celtic knot squares.

Who was Saint Patrick?

Patrick was a real person who lived in the fifth century. Born in Britain, he was captured as a teenager and taken to Ireland, where he worked as a shepherd for six years before escaping home. He later came back to Ireland as a missionary, and March 17 is traditionally the day of his death. The story most often told is that he used the three-leaf shamrock to explain an idea with three parts in one, which is why the shamrock became the symbol of the day. The sheep on these pages are a nod to his years as a shepherd.

The leprechaun is older and has nothing to do with the saint. In Irish folklore he is a small, solitary shoemaker who hides a pot of gold, which is why so many leprechauns here are mending or lacing boots. The green suit is a modern American idea; in the old stories he often wore red.

Shades of green

A page full of clovers and grass can end up as one flat green. Use at least three: a yellow-green for young clover and sunlit grass, a true green for the leprechaun's suit and most leaves, and a dark green for shadows and the hills farthest away. Hills look far off when each row is a little paler and bluer than the one in front of it.

Then add the other colors of the day: gold or yellow for the coins and buckles, orange for a leprechaun's beard, the seven colors of the rainbow in order, and the white of the sheep left bare.

Simple clovers and busy cottages

Most of these pages sit in the middle, a leprechaun and a bit of countryside. The quickest keep one shape large on the page, a snail on a clover, a rainbow, a garland, and suit a child of three or four. Quick to color, above the grid, gathers them:

• Snail on a clover leaf
• Garland of paper clovers
• Rainbow over rolling hills

The densest are the pages full of small clovers and stones, the thatched cottage, the shamrock mandala, the leprechaun on his bicycle with a basket of clover. Lots of detail opens on:

• Shamrock mandala
• Leprechaun riding a bicycle
• Thatched cottage with clover

Parades, green rivers and a holiday that traveled

St. Patrick's Day grew bigger far from Ireland. The first recorded parade for it was held in the Spanish colony of St. Augustine, Florida, in 1601, and New York has held one since 1762, long before the city had skyscrapers. Chicago dyes its river bright green every year, and in Ireland itself the day became a public holiday only in 1903. A child who colors the rainbow over the hills can add a parade marching along the road on the back of the page, with flags, drums and a green river running beside it.

Four leaves, and a hunt for the classroom

Only about one clover in five thousand has four leaves, which is why finding one is lucky. The field of clover page turns that into a game: color every three-leaf clover green, and see who finds the four-leaf one first. In a classroom, hide colored and cut-out four-leaf clovers around the room on the morning of March 17, and the children hunt for them like the real thing.

The garland of paper clovers is the other classroom page: color it, cut out the clovers, and string them across a window.

Printing for March 17

These are free 300 dpi PDFs sized for A4. Print A4 at 100 %; on US Letter, "fit to page" shrinks the drawing by about six percent. The printing guide has the steps. Add to pack gathers a set of leprechauns into one file for a class. The rainbow coloring pages and spring coloring pages follow on, and the holiday coloring pages hold the rest of the year.