What Holiday?

Robert: So what is so special about 3/17... well it is Saint Patrick's Day. Since my family isn't really Irish it still doesn't mean much to us. Mommy decided it was a good time to research into this phenomenon that is making this one day such a huge celebration. Thanks to the power of Wikipedia we were off to get some research done. This is what we discovered:

Saint Patrick (estimated AD 387 - AD 461) to have been born Maewyn Succat (Latin: Magonus Succetus), was a Roman Britain-born Christian missionary and is the patron saint of Ireland along with Brigid of Kildare and Columba. When he was about sixteen he was captured by Irish raiders and taken from his native Wales as a slave to Ireland, where he lived for six years before escaping and returning to his family. After entering the church, he later returned to Ireland as a missionary in the north and west of the island, but little is known about the places where he worked and no link can be made between Patrick and any church. By the eighth century he had become the patron saint of Ireland.... I know lots of blah, blah blah. Guess we should keep looking:

Pious legend credits Patrick with banishing snakes from the island, though all evidence suggests that post-glacial Ireland never had snakes; one suggestion is that snakes referred to the serpent symbolism of the Druids of that time and place, as shown for instance on coins minted in Gaul or that it could have referred to beliefs such as Pelagianism, symbolized as “serpents”.Legend also credits Patrick with teaching the Irish about the concept of the Trinity by showing people the shamrock, a 3-leaved clover, using it to highlight the Christian belief of 'three divine persons in the one God' (as opposed to the Arian belief that was popular in Patrick's time)... Ok I still am a little confused. What does this have to do with drinking green beer? Hmm. Let's keep looking:

March 17, popularly known as St. Patrick's Day, is believed to be his death date and is the date celebrated as his feast day. The day became a feast day in the universal church due to the influence of the Waterford-born Franciscan scholar Luke Wadding, as a member of the commission for the reform of the Breviary the early part of the 17th century. Well I guess that explains some of it... people drink at celebrations, right? So where does the green come in?

St. Patrick's Blue, not green, was the color long-associated with St. Patrick. Green, the color most widely associated with Ireland, with Irish people, and with St. Patrick's Day in modern times, may have gained its prominence through the phrase "the wearing of the green" meaning to wear a shamrock on one's clothing. At many times in Irish history, to do so was seen as a sign of Irish nationalism or loyalty to the Roman Catholic faith. St. Patrick used the shamrock, a three-leaved plant, to explain the Holy Trinity to the pre-Christian Irish. The wearing of and display of shamrocks and shamrock-inspired designs have become a ubiquitous feature of the saint's holiday. The change to Ireland's association with green rather than blue probably began around the 1750's.

So here is what we got from this whole thing... our society loves to drink & party. That's it! They will happily do it for any reason even if they have no clue what is really going on. I don't think many people actually think about this... any day that is called "Saint” something is religious. Last time I checked most Christian religions weren't big on drunken mayhem. My next point is that this is an Irish celebration of freedom & culture so why do people who aren't Irish party? I guess that will follow the great mystery of Cinco De Mayo. I can understand the green thing being about pride so we shall wear some green as a way of saying congrats to the ancient people of Ireland. As for you party people out there please don't feel that we are looking down on you. Most of you know my parents were not strangers to the bar scene once upon a time. Look at it this way... you will be one of the few individuals educated on what this day actually means instead of a part of the mass ignorance partying in the bars today. Cheers!