St. Patrick’s Day in the US, and all over the world, for that matter, has become more of a celebration of public drunkenness. Not that there is anything wrong with that, I’d probably be at the bar right now if I didn’t have to go into work today, but you know what I’m talking about….. the people that, regardless of their heritage, dress up like a leprechaun or scantily clad shamrock fairy, dye their hair green, and hit the local bar crawls and vow to get hammered drunk in the name Ireland, but have absolutely no idea who the hell St. Patrick is or what Erin go Bragh means. Because of this, I think the real meaning and reason behind the day gets a little lost, so I thought I’d throw it out there right quick.
In short, St. Patrick’s Day is a religious holiday celebrating St. Patrick who was a patron saint of Ireland. He brought Christianity to Ireland and introduced the concept of the Holy Trinity by using the shamrock as a symbol to illustrate and explain it. Several myths and legends also claim that he drove the snakes out of Ireland, but I believe that is more of a figurative assessment of his work to drive out Paganism and replace it with Christianity.
Now that I’ve bored everyone with the brief history lesson, I’ll leave you with an image to inspire you to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day in the way that’s the most fun…..Drinking an absurd amount of Guinness and getting some guy in the band to let you borrow his bagpipes. Sláinte!
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