Jon Solo Sebastian 03/17/2024:

It’s St. Patrick’s Day, and it wouldn’t be the same without those happy little fellows called Leprechauns being a part of the celebrations. They don’t quite fit into the cryptid category, but they’re a shoe-in for folktales and folklore; Irish folklore. The basic description of a Leprechaun is a fairy-sized bearded man dressed in green who guards a pot of gold. If you grew up in the late 80’s, you would know him as Lucky from Lucky Charms cereal.

What is a Leprechaun?

“Most Leprechaun legends can be traced back to the 8th century tales of water spirits which were known as ‘luchorpán’ which means ‘small body’. It is said that these spirits merged with a household fairy and developed a penchant for heavy drinking so no cellar was safe! According to other researchers, the term Leprechaun actually comes from the Irish term ‘leath brogan’ which means shoemaker.” 

“More traditional tales of Leprechauns talk of stern, gloomy, bad-tempered old men. They are said to be frequently quarrelsome and foulmouthed and their purpose is to test human beings on their greediness.” The modern interpretations and descriptions are much less grim; and not authentic to Irish Folktales. Influenced by fairytales, he transformed into a cheerful little guy, but he still enjoyed playing tricks on humans.

It is said that if the little shoemaker, and guardian of gold, is captured, or threatened with violence that he might reveal the location of the pot of gold. He’s quite the mischievous fellow, and tricks his captors into looking away from him momentarily. When they bring their attention back toward him they discover he has vanished. The Leprechaun can grant three wishes to solicit his escape as well, but again, with a little trickery he’ll be gone before you realize what happened.

If you were granted three wishes, could you really trust him to grant them, or grant them without repercussions? When you take his mischievous and Loki-like behavior into consideration, I don’t think it would be wise to trust him. Just like that great big pot of gold, the Leprechaun is an elusive enigma. Hard to catch, no real sightings, and an endless rainbow with treasure at the end all sounds like the grand trick of tricks is being played, but is it the Leprechaun’s doing or something else?

Mascots and Pop Culture

A few places you can always find a Leprechaun—minus the pot of gold would be St. Patrick’s Day, sports and cereal. I’ve already mentioned Lucky the Leprechaun on the boxes of Lucky Charms cereal. I’m not sure if they still make the commercials, but I remember the jingle from when I was a kid; “Frosted Lucky Charms, they’re magically delicious!”

At the University of Notre Dame, the Leprechaun is the team mascot for the Fighting Irish. Some have referred to Brownie the Elf, the occasional mascot of the Cleveland Browns, to be a Leprechaun. I’d have to push back on that because he’s clearly an Elf, but in my research of Leprechaun’s, they were mislabeled as Elves before they were considered to be fairies; so maybe Brownie is a Leprechaun disguised as an Elf.

You can’t miss all of the Leprechaun decorations at parades, stores, restaurants/pubs, front yards, on clothing, on people’s cars when St. Patrick’s Day is coming up. Though I have to say I’ve noticed more gnome decorations this year. Could we see the Leprechaun and Gnome square off at Wrestlemania to see who will take over as the mascot for St. Patrick’s Day?