True spirit of holiday lost in a sea of green beer
By Chad Ibbotson
Dyeing an Irishman's drink green would be a good way to get a jab in the eye, at the very least. So why do we in North America insist on such unequivocally untraditional celebrations of holidays?
Just like Christmas has become about presents, St. Patrick's Day has become something so crude that it could make a porn star blush and a kleptomaniac donate to charity. The day is meant to celebrate the passing of the patron saint of Ireland, one of Christianity's most well-know figures, in the fifth century. St. Patrick is believed to be responsible for bringing Christianity to Ireland. It is a religious holiday and many Irish people attend mass. Businesses, excluding restaurants and pubs, are closed. The party in Dublin kicks off with a parade of enormous proportions; about 400,000 people attend.
The green costumes and leprechaun paraphernalia don't even come close to symbolizing something that was originally seen as a religious feast day used to renew one's spirit and offer prayers for missionaries worldwide.
It's really an insult to anyone native to the Emerald Isle -- just like Gigli is an insult to anyone who enjoys fine cinema -- for non-Irish people to waltz around wearing a green shirt toting their pseudo Irish-ness.
Now this is not all to say that having a few pints is a bad or unethical treatment of a celebration. It may be hard to picture an Irish person drinking -- but some do and that's okay. But when absolutely no discretion is given to the nature of a holiday, that's when there is a problem.
What if every year on Canada Day we rode beavers through the streets singing You ain't seen nothing yet by BTO while wearing lumberjack outfits? That wouldn't make any sense at all and the same goes for the North American celebration of St. Patrick's Day.
To truly celebrate a holiday it has to be ingrained into one's culture, you have to know what you are celebrating. The result is a better appreciation for the holiday. Ireland has a long and complex history and has thousands of years of thick clover culture.
The point is there should be at least in some small way some recognition of the significance of each holiday we celebrate -- to really give St. Paddy his due. So next March 17, every person wearing a 'kiss me I'm Irish' t-shirt should grab a pint sit their friends down and tell them what the day is really about.
|
