St Patrick's Day

[mandragora]

I don't get it. My family is sufficiently Irish that it's Tradition to name one male per generation 'Patrick', somewhere down the line. But, um, St Patrick's Day? Why?

Don't get me wrong, it's fun and all. But I can't help feeling that it's a fake celebration. The Irish themselves don't go as overboard on St Patrick's Day as people do in some other countries - oh hell, I might as well name names, by 'some other countries' I mean the US. I was in New York on St Patrick's Day once and had tremendous fun putting on a fake Irish accent and claiming free drinks at bar after bar after bar... Hey, was it my fault that most New Yorkers couldn't tell that the accent was fake? Especially as the name is authentically Irish *g*.

I can understand why there's a big celebration in New York, seeing as there's a large Irish-descent community there, but from what I can gather there is much wearing of shamrocks and green throughout the US, by people who have zero connection to Ireland. Presumably they enjoy the green beer *snerk*.

And what has set off this curmudgeonly, bad-tempered, kill-joy, bitchy rant (besides the fact that I am definitely coming down with some horrible lurgy)? It's the St Patrick's Day challenges/stories I see issuing forth onto mailing lists in fandoms that have zero connection to Ireland, St Patrick, or Irishness in general. I wouldn't mind if I'd read a good St Patrick's Day story. Alas, these are sadly lacking to date.

Comments

Re:

[raincitygirl.livejournal.com]

Uh, not here. It might be celebrated in a big way back east. I know there was a lot of Irish immigration to Ontario and the Maritimes way back in the day. Some people wear something green, and pubs do a theme night (what holiday will a pub not build a theme night around, though?) but I don't think there's a parade or anything. It's not that big a deal.