St. Pat's Godawfuls -- no offense

[urbpan]

St. Patricks Day is rapidly making up ground behind Christmas in the category of enthusiastically celebrated Quasi-religious bullshit holiday. Maybe it's just Boston, maybe it's because I went into an Irish pub last Sunday to retrieve a lost item and had to wade through a swath of green-clad college dunderheads, but I think it's stupid. When I aligned myself more closely with Paganism, I took offense at a holiday honoring the Christian annihilation of Ireland's indigenous religion. Now I'm older and more mellow, so I choose be smugly amused at the asinine trappings of the day. To wit:



These flowers (I can't even tell what they are under all this crap--mums?) are displayed exactly where the glitter-dusted poinsettias were around Christmastime. I have run out of tags, so I'm going to use my xmas godawfuls tag for this entry, so that we can find it later, and sink in our chairs shaking our heads sadly.

Perhaps a better use of the day would be to contemplate the long oppression of the Irish, culminating in the great famine, and discussing how such a thing came to be, and what we humans can do to avoid it in the future. Or you could put on a green plastic derby and get shit-faced, either way.

I bought myself a sixer of Smithwicks from the endcap at Trader Joes, not to honor my Irish ancestry (one ancestor known for sure--a young man stolen from his home at 16 years of age and forced into labor in the United States--mostly I'm of Anglo descent) but because it's a damn good beer.

No offense.

Comments

[hai-kah-uhk.livejournal.com]

Zinnias maybe?

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I think you're right.

[vampyrusgirl.livejournal.com]

There's some quote from a comedian, I think, about how one well-placed bomb at the NY St. Patrick's day parade would wipe out the cream of the crop of Irish mediocrity. It's funny, trust me, even if I can't quote it well. ;)

[teratologist.livejournal.com]

What if I contemplate the oppression of the Irish and then get shit-faced?

Hey, it works for Shane McGowan.

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

There you go! best of both worlds.

[octogirlie.livejournal.com]

ha!

[peppergrass.livejournal.com]

In Tucson, the same could nearly be said of Cinco de Mayo. ;)

My Irish ancestors come from my maternal grandfather's line - and they stopped to work in the coal mines of Scotland (and run a public house) for a generation before moving on to the US in between 1910 and 1923. Some still live in the same little Scottish mining town, and I met them when I visited in '96.

I agree with everything you said about St Pat's, fwiw. For myself, I crocheted a shamrock (mostly to see if I could), and we're having corned beef, roasted (not boiled) cabbage and root vegetables for supper, and I bought a loaf of soda bread (because I've never had it - it's like a giant raisin scone, apparently). Added a bottle of Guinness to the corned beef. Any excuse to eat well - I'm sure my Irish ancestors would approve of that.

The history of the Irish and the Irish in America is definitely worth pondering at least one day a year.

Will not be getting shit-faced, because drinking's (mysteriously) never been my strong suit.

[badnoodles.livejournal.com]

I was going to make this exact point. Cinco de Mayo and St. Patricks - stripped of all their original meaning, now they are an excuse toget shitfaced at a pre-themed party. If not for the fact that it follows so closely on the heels of Xmas/Jan 1, I'm pretty sure generic white folks would enthusiastically celebrate Chinese New Year, which has the extra benefit of firecrackers.

Also, I love St. Patricks, if for absolutely no other reason than good sales on corned beef and various irish beers.

[djinnthespazz.livejournal.com]

Murphy's.

I need to buy some for tomorrow, to celebrate my pinky-fingertip full of Irish ancestry.

Mmmm. Murphy's.

(Although here I see it's brought to me by Heineken. BlehYarg.)

http://www.murphys.com/

[gigglingwizard.livejournal.com]

"Perhaps a better use of the day would be to contemplate the long oppression of the Irish, culminating in the great famine..."

Yeah, that sounds like way more fun.

Around here, it's way less obtrusive. Like Cinco de Mayo, it's something that only the bars make a big deal of here. Staying away from the bars is enough to keep one safe from a bunch of drunken assholes and their once-a-year fake Irish nationalism. Otherwise, it's just some stores putting shamrocks in the windows and McDonald's selling their mint-flavored shakes. We don't dye the rivers green or anything like that. There might be a parade, but nothing you can't easily detour around. I like the briefly displayed, pretty, green decorations and the change in the weather that usually comes with them. About all I, personally, do to celebrate is make an attempt to watch Darby O'Gill and the Little People and try to spend a little time walking around outdoors. Just a personal tradition that I see as having to do with marking the coming of Spring more than anything to do with Padraig or Ireland.

On the other hand, we have a suburb called Dublin, and it's like St. Paddy's Day 365 days a year there--shamrocks on the cop cars and street names like "Emerald Avenue," the whole nine yards. Dublin, Ohio, is to Irish-American kitsch what Hershey, Pennsylvania, is to chocolate. In late summer, they have what they call the Dublin Irish Festival. It's...well, at least it has a bit more depth and authenticity to it than, y'know, green beer and leprechauns.

[kryptyd.livejournal.com]

Are people bemoaning the loss of its "original meaning" even reading your post?

I'm going out tonight. I can't get shitfaced though, since I'm living with the Saxon Foe and don't get a day off work.