Saint Patrick’s Day - the Holiday that nobody can explain
Over the weekend, I watched a bit of news coverage regarding St. Patrick’s Day. Since I am in Chicago, I see everything going on here. It is actually pretty amazing… parades, parties, etc.. And, it all starts WEEKS ahead of today. And, then, I just kept hearing people on the news talking about how drunk they are going to get today.
So, I started asking, “do people even really know what this day really is? Or, do we just use it as an opportunity to party?”. So, I think it is the day that St. Patrick supposedly drove the snakes out of Ireland. But, how many Americans that will be getting rocked tonight actually know what this day is? I mean … you know what Christmas is, President’s Day, MLK Day, Thanksgiving… but, St. Patrick’s Day has just become this glorious opportunity to get drunk off your ass in the middle of the week for no apparent reason … even if you are not Irish!
The reason I know this is because I have been asking people at work. Nobody has a clue. I asked my very educated and intelligent wife, Tracey, this morning. Also, no clue. So, what percentage of Americans have ANY clue at all as to what this day is. Now, that would be interesting to know.
Or, maybe, that would just be useless information. Better for all Irish and non-Irish, alike, to just celebrate a drinking holiday. So, tilt back the Guiness, listen to some “Whiskey in the Jar” and most of all enjoy your St. Patty’s Day… whatever the hell that is.
Comments
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Time: March 17, 2008, 12:00 pm
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Comment from joe lance
Time: March 17, 2008, 12:27 pm
See also: Cinco de Mayo
Comment from Phil
Time: March 17, 2008, 2:46 pm
Wow, Bridgett, very informative. I am impressed with you Wiki-ish knowledge. I’ll bet you are in the 1/10 of 1% of Americans with some knowledge in this area.
Thanks for the explanation.
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Time: March 17, 2008, 3:44 pm
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Comment from bridgett
Time: March 17, 2008, 7:41 pm
Comes with the territory of being Irish and Catholic and living in one of the most Irish towns in the US and living smack dab between a good Irish-owned pub and the Ancient Order of Hibernians. I’m also a US historian by trade; one has to know these things because smart students will ask.
Comment from bridgett
Time: March 17, 2008, 10:47 am
It’s a Catholic feast day, where if you’re Catholic, you go to a Mass celebrating the life of a particular saint (or multiple saints…the Catholic Church is a pretty old outfit and so the saints have piled up). Every day has a different saint — the 17th is St. Patrick, the 18th is St. Cyril, the 19th is St. Joseph…you can find a full listing here:
http://www.catholic.org/saints/f_day/mar.php
Saint Patrick was a former Roman slave turned missionary who was principally credited with converting the island of Ireland from pagan to nominally Christian. He is associated with the shamrock, which he used as an instructional tool to explain the Trinity. He died on March 17, 461 AD — so Saint Patrick’s Day is the anniversary of his death, not the day in which he supposedly drove the snakes out of Ireland (something that modern historians chalk up to population expansion, deforestation, and climate change). It’s a holy day of obligation if you’re a Catholic living in Ireland; you must go to church. As it fell during Holy Week this year, the real Irish celebrated it on Saturday, March 15th.
Why do we celebrate it as we do in the US, turning it into a secular drinking holiday with parades? It’s been celebrated that way since 1762, when Irish troops deployed as part of the English army marched through NYC. In the mid-nineteenth century, the influx of Irish immigrants to the urban Northeast used it as an opportunity to show off their numbers and their muscle, the better to influence urban politics. In the late 19th century and throughout the 20th century, it was a chance for Catholic Irish-Americans to demonstrate their solidarity with occupied Ireland (as well as to express ethnic and religious pride at a time when being Irish and being Catholic was an impediment to economic and social equality).
Now, as you note, Americans just use it as an excuse to go out and get drunk…hard to see any particular political meaning in a celebration that seems designed to make Guinness and Harp money. I’ve also heard that it’s becoming a big tourist event in Ireland now, as the Irish are trying to attract Yankee dollars by creating a new “authentic” ritual that Americans are willing to pay for.
Hope this helps.