Happy St. Patrick's Day!

[Alex]

Originally Posted by blueerica

And boo hoo to your humbug co-worker, Alex - you should let him know that they celebrate it in Ireland with festivals,

He's from Ireland, and lived there up to about 3 years ago (that would be approximately 45 years), so I'm sure he's perfectly aware of how they celebrate the holiday (secular observation of the day is much older in the United States than in Ireland).

What he meant is that for him, growing up, St. Patrick's Day was a religious holiday and not the monstrosity (his word) that America has made it and now because all the tourists expect it to be so, it is only in the last decade that it has really been promoted as a party holiday within Ireland itself.

I have no idea how accurate it is, just sharing his view. Personally, as with Valentine's Day, since I'm not Catholic (and I don't drink beer) I ignore this one too.

Just checking Wikipedia now I found this paragraph:

Christian leaders in Ireland have expressed concern about the secularisation of St Patrick's Day. Writing in the Word magazine (March 2007), Fr. Vincent Twomey stated that, "it is time to reclaim St Patrick's Day as a church festival". He questioned the need for "mindless alcohol-fuelled revelry" and concluded that, "it is time to bring the piety and the fun together".

It would appear my coworker is in agreement.


I had chicken tacos for lunch and saw enough of the San Francisco St. Patrick's Day parade to remind myself why I don't go to parades (unfortunately for the traffic I had to endure I had a screening this morning three blocks away).