Do you celebrate Patrick's Day?
I know I’m probably one of the very few Irish people on Fluther. But I do know that Patrick’s day is celebrated in many other parts of the world.
So if you are celebrating, how do you celebrate?
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Not really. When I was younger, I’d go to the parade (NYC), and it would be an occasions for getting some drinks.
I will now maybe go to a local parade, which is smaller in scale, has easier parking, maybe one hour in length instead of all day, and may have some friends walking in it. I will and have been eating Irish soda bread. That’s about it. I also may wear green today, even though I’m not Irish. I look Irish so people are fooled haha.
I will wear green today, and I will have a corned beef sandwich for lunch. But i don’t drink, so that cuts out most of the St. Paddy’s Day American style celebration right there.
I make the traditional American corned beef and cabbage (and potatoes) but that’s more because the meal is too much of a hassle to do regularly, and I enjoy it.
Other than that, no. The idea of Irish-American culture being reduced to green-dyed watery American lager and a bunch of clover-leaf screen printed merchandise just irks me.
I’m Irish because that’s where my father was born, not because it’s the day granted to some traveling Catholic evangelist.
I celebrated it 33 years ago today by giving birth to my son but that was the only time.
I used to. Wore green, drank green beer, green rolling papers, partied all night. Like Cinco de Mayo, it was an excuse to party and drive the economy. Not anymore. It’s questionable if my mammalian charges can see color, and I’m not much of a beer drinker.
Top of de mornin te ya oirish baahhsterds!
I went to a big parade last weekend, dragged my husband and his parents to it, and wore my green. I don’t celebrate it as a religious holiday, I just go for the “American” tradition of it.
When I told my MIL about the parade she told me her nephew was named after St. Patrick, because he was born on the 17th. Then I asked her if she knew who St. Pat was? She had no idea. She’s Mexican, and MX doesn’t celebrate it like we do in the states. She is Catholic though, watches mass, the rosary, on TV and goes to church regularly.
Nope. No Irish in my blood (but a very strong Scots background) and my days of enjoying being around loud drunk people ended when I was a bartender.
I also don’t “celebrate” New Years Eve.
That said, for those who do, I wish them many funs! :-)
Nope, even though there is lots of Irish in me. I’m Scottish and don’t celebrate St Andrew’s day either.
Holy shit. It’s the 17th. Happy Paddy’s Day, Keith, ya fuggin’ oirish nerd! I’ll have a beer on that.
My maternal grandparents immigrated from Ireland in the late 1800’s, like many others in that era. They came here as youngsters with their respective families, and met and married here. In our family, there was a very strong tradition of celebration for St. Patrick’s Day. We had our corned beef and cabbage, and would sing songs and drink some beer and whiskey. The objective was not necessarily to get rip-roaring drunk, but to celebrate what we knew as our heritage. Stories of the family were told, and it was truly a celebration of our heritage. Admittedly, the public celebrations have degenerated into a reason to get drunk.
Interesting note about corned beef and cabbage: A traditional Irish “boiled dinner” might consist of bacon and cabbage and root vegetables. When Irish working class immigrants arrived in the New World, many would find themselves in the “low-rent” districts of the major cities, where many of their neighbors would be Jewish immigrants. Where there were Jewish immigrants, there would appear Jewish delicatessens; the Irish immigrants, looking for some back bacon or ham for their boiled dinner, couldn’t find the pork products, so they ended up buying beef, usually a brisket, and preparing it in what has become the “traditional” corned beef and cabbage.
Only to the extent that I just finished putting a big slab of corned beef in my crock pot, along with lots of veggies. Looking forward to dinner tonight and corned beef sandwiches tomorrow!
Lá fhéile Pádraig sona dhuit! to one and all!
I don’t remember there being any emphasis on St. Patrick’s day when I was a kid in the rural Midwest. You risked getting pinched if you didn’t wear green. I don’t even remember green beer when I was in college.
I’m still shocked when I walk into a store (around Valentine’s day now) and see a big display of St. Patty’s day decorations.
@ibstubro I would think it would be big in the Midwest. When I lived in MI it was the first time I heard of green beer or rivers running green.
When I was little in NY and MD I remember wearing green. In NY especially I remember celebrating all sorts of things. We had a May Pole celebration in the park in my town, Easter egg hunt, we all embraced all sorts of traditions. They were done in a secular way for the masses. I think it’s America’s way of celebrating our diversity. Look at Cinco de Mayo. Mexico doesn’t even celebrate it, but America commercialized it enough that now it’s a nationwide thing. I like it all. A reason to celebrate another culture, or subculture of our country.
@Yetanotheruser I like that story. I never heard it before.
Begorrah! I just had a friend drop off a bottle o’ Jamesons!
It might just be the small town where I was raised, @JLeslie.
The majority of the Irish and Slavic working class were effectively (albeit voluntarily) segregated as long as the blacks. That is, until about 1960. Much longer, if you take into account the fact that both groups had public elementary schools in-community.
Then there’s nothing to celebrate. I’m half a globe away from Ireland anyway.
Pshaw!
You don’t need Irish heritage to drink green beer celebrate Irish culture, @NerdyKeith!
In the States St. Patrick’s Day is a fast growing merchandising opportunity. Something to fill the “seasonal” store shelves between Valentines and Easter.
Just wear and think green @Mimishu1995.
@Mimishu1995 Technically it celebrates St. Patrick who brought Christianity to Ireland. In the United States it’s the day we where green, like the color of a shamrock. A shamrock, or clover, was supposedly used by St. Pat to describe the holy trinity. Some people in America get all costumed up looking like leprechauns, and putting clover stickers on their clothing, and wearing shirts that say, “Kiss me I’m Irish.” It can get crazy.
The parade where I live celebrates veterans, police and firefighters. The Irish have a long history in America for working in those fields. This year there were over 50 WWII vets at the front of our parade. The oldest is 103! There are very few vets from that war still alive. We had fire trucks from neighboring cities and counties and from several other states. The parade lasted over an hour.
@ibstubro Oh by all means I’m not objecting to anyone who is not Irish joining in on the celebration. I was just explaining what the holiday means to those who are Irish. But anyone can celebrate.
-@JLeslie Chicano activists raised awareness of the holiday in the 1960s, in part because they identified with the victory of indigenous Mexicans over European invaders during the Battle of Puebla. It was basically a California chicano thing strongly tied to Cesar Chavez’ struggle for worker’s rights. It wasn’t a drinking holiday, it was a day to be spent in demonstration and direct action.
On 5 May, 1989, the Mexican brewers of Cerveceria Modelo, makers of Corona Beer, through their Texas distributors, co-opted the celebration and took it national by distrubuting free Corona Extra to certain key American bar owners in order to promote Corona, their main beer product. Smart move. Today it’s considered another American holiday. Cinco de Mayo is celebrated in some places in Mexico, but is a major holiday in the state of Puebla where the battle was fought. Thus, it was an invented holiday by Mexicans as a promotional campaign to move their product, not Americans.
Here is a link to the beginning of our parade. The WWII vets are in the wheelchairs. They aren’t all wheelchair bound, it’s just that the parade is over a mile walk and it’s near 80F in the sun.
If you stick it out and watch the video for 4 or 5 minutes you’ll see two bagpipe groups, and lots of uniformed service men and women. They bring out old fire trucks from the early 1900’s for the parade too. The latter part of the parade is more local businesses with floats and cars doing advertising basically.
It’s a pretty big parade for a medium sized suburb. We do it on a Saturday, because we don’t get a holiday day here in my area for St. Patty’s Day.
You’ll notice the crowd all wearing green.
@Espiritus_Corvus My MIL is from Puebla. It’s one of the few states, as you pointed out, that celebrates the day. Even still, my MIL doesn’t really recognize or do anything for the day.
Most Americans think it’s Mexican Independence Day. Sounds like July 4th I guess. Someone once told me that Cinco de Mayo caught on because it’s easy for Americans to say. LOL. Dieciseis de Septiembre would be more complicated.
I didn’t know the Corona part of the story. Thanks.
As far as drinking holiday, you reminded me to mention that the way I remember it, St. Patty’s Day is a day during lent where people could cheat on their restrictions, and drink and party.
The majority of the Irish are at cheltenham racecourse today, to be sure, to be sure.
I know you weren’t excluding anyone, @NerdyKeith, but I didn’t want @Mimishu1995 to define St. Pat’s day so narrowly she thought “there’s nothing to celebrate.”
It’s for the Irish! Celebrate for celebration sake!
I have a bit of Scot/Irish heritage myself.
Now I might have to watch Johnny Dangerously tonight.
Thanks, you fargin iceholes!
@Espiritus_Corvus Cinco de Mayo was well celebrated in Southern California in the 1970’s, when I went to school in Santa Barbara. War published teh sone Cinco de Mayo in 1981.
@zenvelo It wasn’t celebrated everywhere in the U.S. in 1981, and that was my point. It wasn’t national. It wasn’t national until Corona’s very successful campaign.
No, even though I’m wearing green pants and have an Irish surname.
I’m wondering if any future US Gay Pride parades will be held on June 26th.
@Brian1946 The Gay Pride Parade around here is usually held in early June.
Pride Day in San Francisco is the last Sunday in June, Every body celebrates earlier in the month, then they can come to San Francisco for the culmination.
There’s lots going on in Glasgow as you probably know.
Huh. I’m not wearing any green today. I almost always wear green, as it’s my favourite colour.
I’ll wear my green-painted tennis shoes with the silver triskelions later on today.
There’s no avoiding it in this town. Any excuse to drink and act up is seized upon by any and all. And to prove it we still proudly lead Boston in alcoholics per capita. I look forward to gathering with the O’Schwartzes & McWongs this evening to drink til we all turn green and the snakes return to downtown Dublin! HAPPY ST. PATRICK’S DAY!
I try to remember to wear green. But that’s about it.
Not in recent years but I have tipped back a few green beers in my day. Today I am house/horse sitting so the only green I’m wearing will be the hay all over my body later. lol
@Brian1946 Really? I always thought the shamrock shake is the only decent thing they’ve ever had on their menu. I certainly wouldn’t eat the food there.
I like the Shamrock shakes too, and I just had a Shamrock cookie. No-more-cookies or I’ll be wearing giant green underpants next year. lol
Lol @Coloma
What exactly is a shamrock cookie? Sounds yummy
@NerdyKeith Clover shaped sugar cookie with green sugar sprinkles. :-)
They’re magically delicious!
I’m buying Lucky Charms tomorrow.
@JLeslie Surprisingly, Lucky Charms is not available in Ireland. Over here its mainly corn flakes, shreddies and coco pops.
One little factoid that I remember learning on my three trips to Ireland is that the shamrock is not the symbol of Ireland, the harp is.
@jca Yes the harp is the symbol for Ireland. Its on the back of all the euro coins that are manufactured in Ireland, its on the Guinness pint glasses etc.
Isn’t the harp in the flag?
Also, I remember reading once blue is actually the Irish color. My husband once bought me a shamrock pendant necklace and it was blue. I thought it unusual at the time.
My husband is obsessed with the Irish. Red hair, Irish dance, Irish music, Irish accent, potato soup (someone told me potato soup isn’t really Irish??) and in and on. LOL. One day we will actually make it to Ireland. Maybe that’s what I should do is talk my husband into Ireland while we are out if work.
@JLeslie yes the harp is in some versions of our flag. However most flags are just plain green, white and orange.
As for potatoe soup? Eh not really something we have here. But Irish stew which has a lot of potatoe in it, is.
@Coloma You’d think I would love corn flakes, but not so much haha. My breakfast of choice is either bran flakes or porridge with fruit and honey.
This post is making me want to go back to Ireland. In a few years when my daughter is a bit older…...It’s such a great country to visit.
I’m afraid if I ever get there I’ll never leave. I wonder what life is like for an illegal immigrant in rural Cork…
I once worked for an Irish wine maker, he was the nicest guy and boy could he cook.
He made the most amazing chocolate covered Hazel Nuts. I couldn’t keep enough of them on the tasting room bar.
I’m really curious about St. Andrew.
What’s the non-meat all about? I just heard a snippet on NPR, and I’ve never heard of St Andrew’s day before.
Thanks, @JLeslie.
I heard mentioned on NPR, in association with St. Pat or Mardi Gras, a ‘feast that contained all the non-meat dishes known to Italians’.
Ring any bells?
^^Lent. It’s common to give up meat for Lent. Mardi Gras, or Fat Tuesday, is the big feast before the Lenten fast which starts the next day, Ash Wednesday. Lent ends this year on March 24th. St. Pat’s is on the 17th. On years when St. Paddy’s occurs during Lent, there is always a papal dispensation to break fast and debauch for just that one day. Ain’t bein’ Catholic grand?
@ibstubro @Espiritus_Corvus It should be mentioned, for those who might not know, that Catholic “meat” does not include seafood.
During lent Catholics don’t eat meat on Friday and that’s where the clever alliteration Fish Friday developed. In fact, back in the day Catholics don’t eat meat every Friday. I recently was living in Ohio and more than one menu had Fish Friday specials.
I have Italian friends who often had pizza or pasta on Friday growing up, so it wasn’t like they were suffering in any way. In fact, pizza Friday possibly is a leftover from the Catholic tradition. I know growing up in school pizza was always Friday.
@JLeslie: I know when I was growing up, pizza night for many friends was Friday night. It was also “billed” as being mom’s night off of cooking, and something fun rather than the usual. Pizza places are still all really busy on Friday nights around here.
@jca Good point. I remember it being billed as mom’s night off, or family night.
And remember, kids, beaver lives in water, which makes it a fish, and totally not meat.
I think the green death mouth is a bit of a stretch, but this is an interesting piece.
I was trying to find the story were they mentioned St. Andrews recently.
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