LinkBack URL
About LinkBacks
I don't know why there's confusion. St. Paddy's Day is a celebration. Yes, it first began as a religious celebration, commemorating the arrival of Christianity in Ireland, but it's evolved into a celebration of Irish culture and being Irish (or, you know, being an honorary Irishman). There are people who will use ANY holiday as an excuse to drink a lot. Not everyone who celebrates today does it for the alcohol
Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.' - Isaac Asimov
I was thinking of the immortal words of Socrates, who said, "... I drank what?"
Well, I'm not confused nor am I Irish. To me, it's all about the food. I'm going to my sister's for a corned beef and cabbage dinner this evening. She has baked some Irish soda bread. I just finished baking blondies to bring for dessert and soon I will start on a cheesecake pie. Also making baked mac and cheese for my vegetarian son.
Tuesday is St. Joseph's Day, which is a major celebration in Italian-American homes. St. Joseph is the patron saint of Sicily and a traditional dish is pasta w/sardines. My ethnicity is half-Sicilian, but I will pass on making that dish b/c I don't like sardines. I will, however, be consuming sfingi...a pastry puff filled with cannoli cream filling.
Happy St. Paddy's Day to those who celebrate!
There was a pub crawl in my town last night. We walked there to check it out as it is just down the road from where we live. There were plenty of people drinking but really it was great fun to see so many out laughing and visiting with neighbors and friends. Not all the fun was drunk fun either. It was like a cash mob for lots of businesses in one night. People were very friendly and the owners of the establishments seemed thrilled to have so many people attend. I usually stay away from such events, but decided to see what it was all about and I liked it! Our area has been depressed economically for a long time and there are some brave people who have started businesses here in the last few years and others who have made it through the last few tough years. I loved the enthusiasm of the celebration.
Last edited by Cootie; 03-17-2013 at 01:21 PM.
I live in the Northwest where there's usually snow on the ground well into the Springtime. In fact, I woke up to the ground being covered with a light covering of fresh snow this morning.Originally Posted by Critical
I don't know why there's confusion. St. Paddy's Day is a celebration. Yes, it first began as a religious celebration, commemorating the arrival of Christianity in Ireland, but it's evolved into a celebration of Irish culture and being Irish (or, you know, being an honorary Irishman). There are people who will use ANY holiday as an excuse to drink a lot. Not everyone who celebrates today does it for the alcohol
Quite a few years ago my mother was visiting during this time & we went "out" for the St Patrick's Day parade & subsequent bar crawl. It's huge here. The weather was pretty nice for here at this time of year. We were talking about this same question & she pretty much nailed it:
After a long cold Winter, people are getting cabin fever. They're tired of staying home & cooped up. They're ready to get out & celebrate. That's right about the time St Patrick's Day shows up. Parades, streamers, costumes, contests, corned beef & cabbage dinners, and of course the bar crawl. People are celebrating Spring & the end of Winter as well as the Irish. All of a sudden everybody's Irish because everyone wants to get out, have fun & celebrate.
St Patrick's Day shows up at exactly the right time. Timing is everything. My mom was a smart woman.
I happened to click through the adorable dancers on google today to the Wikipedia page about St. Patrick's Day. It said one reason for the over-indulgence of alcohol is because of those who give up drinking alcohol for Lent and this is an excused time to drink it during Lent. It makes sense when you consider it that way and I can see how that would make it a drinking holiday. Then there are the othes that don't give it up for Lent but think any excuse for consuming large amounts of alcohol is great!
I'm only a tiny part Irish, although I do have red hair :-) I usually only wear green but don't go any further than that. A drink does sound good though, just to celebrate with everyone else of course!!
That makes a lot of sense. My asthma triggers are spring and fall allergens, perfume, and dust generated from cleaning. Any other time I'm fine, but those triggers require an inhaler. If you know that chemical cleaning products are your child's triggers, you'd want to avoid them.
I just had a co-worker tell me the other day that she had some damaged tupperware. She found some directions for getting replacements online and itemized everything and sent it to them and they replaced everything for her, no questions asked! For discontinued items they replaced with something comparable. I was impressed, because it was a *significant* amount of tupperware!
Posting Permissions
878Likes
Reply With Quote
I love the food. For me, I know that spring will be here soon and I look forward to gardening season.