Tuesday, March 11, 2008

St. Patrick's Day...

What do all of you do for St. Patrick's day? I'm pretty sure Beccy will have something quite different to say than the rest of us. To my internet readings, in Ireland, St. Patrick's Day is more of a family oriented holiday than a drunk fest or a reason to wear green and have big parades.

According to folklore, this days honors when St. Patrick drove the snakes out of Ireland. Indeed, from all reports, there ARE no snakes in Ireland. For those of us in the heartland that get a little flutter when one crosses our path in surprise, this would be welcome indeed.

Having Irish heritage, I try to at least follow a few things that we have most likely Americanized as traditions. My mom makes corned beef and cabbage. Last year, my hubby and I got some corned beef sliced and had reubens on St. Patrick's day. We also have made 'Irish Stew' before, which is also probably highly Americanized, and as we don't use lamb, is probably even further from true, but at least we try. We don't go out and get drunk, we do wear green, a little shamrock pin, and yearn for our homeland. Oh and I have a cd that I play at this time of year that has some racous songs about telling lies in a pub, coming to America to find a golden opportunity, and some sweet love songs. It's what we do on St. Patrick's day. What do you do?

5 comments:

Ami said...

You said, "According to folklore, this days honors when St. Patrick drove the snakes out of Ireland. Indeed, from all reports, there ARE no snakes in Ireland."

He did a pretty good job, then, didn't he?

We don't do anything specific to celebrate the day. Since I work with kids, however, I will wear green. We made shamrock guys at work this week, too. I think that's it.

Since I don't drink alcohol, I suppose green beer is out.
Ha.

Ami said...

p.s.
I'll probably play the Unicorn song.

:-D

Sauntering Soul said...

Love the unicorn song!

My ex was of Irish heritage and he was an alcoholic. Ten years with him celebrating St. Patty's Day cured me of wanting to do much of that for the remainder of my life. I don't really do anything to celebrate. I'm boring. :-)

Anonymous said...

I will wear green so as I do not get pinched. Also, maybe I'll make corned beef (but no cabbage...yuck). I'm only part Irish, so I guess I only partly celebrate. ;)

ChrisB said...

In the past I have been to a couple of the parades held in Dublin and my grandchildren used to dress up and go to parties. I must see if I can dig out some past pictures if I have time to scan them in (didn't have a digital camera back then)!