Today is March 17 and I am wearing the obligable Irish green shirt ... um, of course it has an image of a black kitten in a clover field. There's that. I was born down under but I am a U.S. citizen. The closest I've come to Ireland is my "aunt Margaret" ... who came here to live in Texas about the time St. Patrick's Day started to be more widely celebrated in the U.S. (read: businesses wanted to sell more stuff), the late sixties.
Anyway, I think most of us realize that how North Americans celebrate St. Patrick isn't remotely how the Irish choose to celebrate said saint ... who was actually a Brit that only ended up in Ireland because he was kidnapped and sold into slavery ... at least he did turn that around by working as a missionary after said trauma. In short, he helped bring Christianity to England and attempted to abolish paganism. An ensuing metaphor was the generated that he "drove the snakes out of Ireland" ... hence an erroneous legend that they were literal snakes.
SO! Irish soldiers and immigrants came to the states and brought the holiday with them. Irish nationals may raise a beer at one point during the day (I believe on this day Lenten restrictions are waived), but he is generally celebrated in Ireland by going to church. He is, however, generally celebrated in the U.S. by what we assume the Irish do on St. Patrick's Day ... get drunk and dye rivers green. We're bastards like that.
But aren't we all bastards in a way? And isn't that what is cool about living in North America? I am not even sure I got all this straight in the first place.
For example, many are told that four leaf clovers are lucky -- I've always looked for them. Maybe I shouldn't concern myself with the fourth leaf and instead enjoy the three leaves that traditionally represented the holy trinity. For me, anytime I add myself to the mix, life gets all wonky anyway.
SO! Irish soldiers and immigrants came to the states and brought the holiday with them. Irish nationals may raise a beer at one point during the day (I believe on this day Lenten restrictions are waived), but he is generally celebrated in Ireland by going to church. He is, however, generally celebrated in the U.S. by what we assume the Irish do on St. Patrick's Day ... get drunk and dye rivers green. We're bastards like that.
But aren't we all bastards in a way? And isn't that what is cool about living in North America? I am not even sure I got all this straight in the first place.
For example, many are told that four leaf clovers are lucky -- I've always looked for them. Maybe I shouldn't concern myself with the fourth leaf and instead enjoy the three leaves that traditionally represented the holy trinity. For me, anytime I add myself to the mix, life gets all wonky anyway.
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