Don't you just love St. Patrick's day? Shamrocks! Green beer! Cheap plastic beads left over from Mardi Gras! Yay! Ah yes, it's truly a day to appreciate your local pub and to annoy people with your horrific fake Irish accent.
Ok, it might not sound like it, but I really do like St. Patrick's day. No particular reason really. Maybe because I get to pinch my non-green wearing friends. I dunno. But I got to thinking that there's got to be more to this holiday than corned beef (ick dude) and drunkeness. So, in the spirit of American holidays that we've butchered, I've done some research.
St. Patrick was the patron saint of Ireland but was, in fact, born in Britain. (Patron saint, by the way, simply means a protector of a certain nation). History tells us that he was captured and taken to Ireland as a slave. As a slave he was forced to cook cabbage all day and went mad from the smell and began to hallucinate visions of the Virgin Mary drinking green tea. It was during this time that he discovered his calling for ministry. For 6 years he stayed in captivity and eventually escaped and commenced with the baptising and holy-doings.
His story is fuzzy and laced with myth, but really, what saint's isnt? Legend says that he banished all snakes from Ireland and sent them all to Australia. Or perhaps the Amazon. The popularity of the shamrock symbol supposedly comes from St. Patrick's explanation of the holy trinity.
St. Patrick's day can either be celebrated as a religious holiday or as just a day to celebrate Irish culture. Which apparantly means buying some red hair dye and getting rip-roaring drunk. It makes me wonder... if you were to go to Ireland today, would they all be getting drunk as well? Or is it more of a pious thing to them? Also, if there were a patron saint of America, what would other countries do to celebrate us? Get drunk off of cheap beer, dress up in red, white and blue and eat cheeseburgers and apple pie? Yeah, you're right. To properly celebrate American culture they'd just sit on their couches and watch "American Idol" marathons. *shudder*
In Ireland it's more of a religious holiday. They go to mass and hang with the fam. The pubs close early if they are open at all. And the color blue was originally (still is kinda) associated with St. Patrick.
ReplyDeleteWith all this in mind, I think if other countries were to have a holiday celebrating america, it would simply involve a lot of ignorance, confusion, and probably yelling/arguing. But, that's just my opinion.