Happy St. Patrick's Day
Today is a celebration of our Irish heritage. According to DNA analysis, I am about 40% Irish, and Ward is about 25% Irish. While I look the part with red hair and freckles, Ward doesn't with his black hair and olive skin. That's what is so interesting about genetics and our varied backgrounds. You're never sure what the almost infinite combination of genes will come up with. When I was younger and would lament to my mother, I wanted to be like one of my older sisters; my mother would always say how boring the world would be if we were all alike. She was right.
Now to add a little more about St. Patrick's Day, I'm running an updated version of a post from three years ago.
St. Patrick's Day This and That
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| Irish dancers in St. Patrick's Day Parade, Washington, D. C. |
I usually don't do a lot to observe St. Patrick's Day except wear green--a habit that started in elementary school days to avoid being pinched. If you didn't wear green, you were fair game. I wondered how that crazy tradition got started and found out that, most likely, it was started by Irish immigrants in this country a couple hundred years ago. Supposedly, wearing green made you invisible to mischievous leprechauns who would pinch you if they could see you. A pinch from someone reminded you to be aware that a leprechaun could sneak up on you at any time.
However, it wasn't until last year that I learned about wearing orange on St. Patrick's Day. Apparently, you wear green if you are Catholic and orange if you are Protestant. A friend, whose mother is Irish, said she was always insistent that they wear orange instead of green on St. Patrick's Day. I think that detail was lost on most of us in this country, or at least me.
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| Shamrocks (white clover) |
And while I usually don't do a lot on St. Patrick's Day (not green beer drinker or corned beef eater), I have been to a few parades. This was especially a big event when we lived in New Orleans. The fun part about a St. Patrick's Day parade was they threw vegetables from the floats to make an Irish stew. That means that they threw cabbages, carrots, potatoes, and onions along with the beads. We usually took them home and did just that--made a stew.
We've been to one parade here, and while it was enjoyable, it didn't quite live up to the vegetable throwing in New Orleans.
So as I go and figure out what green thing I'm going to wear today, I hope you have a Happy St. Patrick's Day, however big or small you choose to celebrate it.
Happy St. Patty's day! I'm debating on going to a concert at our library tonight. The group is a favorite of ours and sings traditional Irish songs. They are a lot of fun and don't take themselves too seriously. But the timing is wonky with my daughter's schedule. So we'll see.
ReplyDeleteMy husband found a corned beef in the freezer from last year, so we had it while my son was home from college last week. Husband says that corned beef is super expensive this year, so it's a good thing we had one put by. We all love it. He made corned beef sandwiches on rye for dinner last night, which is one of my all-time favorite sandwiches. I guess we've already done our celebrating!
Anything you find that you bought last year has got to be a great find since it would cost so much to buy it now. And having your all-time favorite sandwiches sounds like a great way to celebrate the holiday. We haven't done any special foods except to incorporate cabbage into a couple of dishes because it was on sale.
DeleteThank you for all the information about St. Patrick's Day! Hope you had a great day, yesterday. :)
ReplyDeleteWe did nothing extra to celebrate St. Patrick's Day, but I did have a quiet day at work. And that is always welcome.
DeleteAt least I wore green
ReplyDeleteAnd I assume that it provided pinch protection from those pesky leprechauns. :)
DeleteEncountered no angry leprechauns.
DeleteRelieved to hear that. :)
DeleteMy mom always told me growing up that “we don’t celebrate St Patrick’s Day because we aren’t Irish.” I don’t know what her beef was. She was right, my ancestry came back mostly Greek, but also with Italian, Middle East and ashkenazi. But my daughter came back 10% Irish from her dad, so I was like YES! Now I can celebrate because I’ve birthed an Irish person. Although this year we didn’t do much. We planted our seeds a few days later, that’s it. No beer for me either.
ReplyDeleteWe didn't do much this year, either. Although, we don't do much most years. Do you celebrate any Greek holidays?
DeleteEaster is a big deal to Greeks, and in the Orthodox Church, it’s observed on a different calendar. Once every four years, it falls on the same day as western Easter. Once every four years, it’s four weeks later, and twice every four years it’s a week later.
DeleteI didn't realize that Easter in the Orthodox Church happened at different times.
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