by Miss.Fit 13 Replies latest jw friends
Hello all, I know St.Patrick's Day is about over.
I was just curious how many of you observed the holiday. I live in the USA in the South West. Where I live we have a large population of Native Americans and Hispanics.
So St.Patrick's Day is low key.
We wear green and talk about drinking green beer.
I started to wonder what a real celebration would entail.
I dressed as a lepercaun for story time.
St Patrick was in fact English and his birth name is Maewyn.
Originaly the colour for st patrick was blue and green was considered unlucky
So do the English observe it also?
I read the legend was he drove all the snakes out of Ireland. There was something about sins?
I was wondering if it was a big holiday.
Pretty big day in Ireland, its an Official Holiday too, so everyone gets to go to the Pub !
The Irish Diaspora will celebrate like crazy too, wherever they are in the World.
I bet there was a lot of the Black Stuff drunk yesterday, and a good few hangovers to enjoy today !
St Patrick was in fact English and his birth name is Maewyn.
"Maewyn"... sounds Welsh ...?
Miss.Fit,
As Barry said, Patrick was English or born in what was then Roman Britannia.
The only accounts of him that are nearly trust-worthy are his "Confessions" and his letter tho the Soldiers of Coroticus. The RCC has co-opted the story as it does with all note-worthy activities that can be braided into its religion and imbellished it.
What I like about Patrick's story is how he celebrates the valor of women and of women slaves in particular. Also, he took to task the soldiers of a British tribal chief,Coroticus who was a Christian, for a slave raid in Ireland (Hibernia). It is said this is the first anti-slavery letter written by a Christian.
I do have lot of Irish in me. Through one way and another, I was stranded in Dublin, Ireland from July 1973-June1974. It was formative and facinating. I was a nominal Catholic at the time-no one the Church would have been proud of, certainly. I celebrated St. Patrick's Day 1974 in a pub and narrowly missed getting into a brawl.
I do like the kind of man Patrick was. If following Jesus helps us be decent and brave on behalf of our fellow humans--all good. But religion takes over too much.
Happy Day-After-St. Patty's Day, Miss.Fit!
"And may you be in heaven a half hour before the devil knows you're dead!"--Irish proverb--not authorized by the Church
Thanks Humbled.
Phizzy: does everyone get off work?
What's the black stuff?
We had t-shirts that said: I don't have to be Irish to drink.
the black stuff?
You mean, what they're drinking?
It's Guinness.
Edit: Now available in a package store near you!
As to day off, yea everybody, it is a Bank Holiday as we used to call it in the U.K, of course the self-employed are free to do what they like, but I bet they are in the Pub by lunchtime too !
The Black Stuff ain't what it used to be for some reason, it is still a unique Stout, but something has changed since the Brewery was bought by the French.
Those "cheese-eating surrender monkeys" haven't been adding garlic to the mash have they ?
As well as St Paddy being "English" , so was Guiness of course, it started life by an accidental burning of the Barley grain by a London brewer, who sold the resulting stuff cheap to porters who worked at a London market, because the usual customers for Stout were not too sure about the taste !!! ?????
Hence it is also known as Porter.
Mr Guiness took the recipe to Ireland, where the well water in his Dublin brewery perfected the stuff.
When I had my first real Irish Guiness in the 1960's I thought I had died and gone to heaven ! I had tasted the London brewed stuff, and it was shite in comparison, in those days you simply had to go to the Emerald Isle to taste the real thing.
If you buy it in the USA, do not buy in cans if possible, and buy "Draught" , the bottled Stout of the same name is nothing like the "Draught", which tries to emulate what you would get in a Dublin Pub. "Tries" being the operative word.
I love the Irish people, they love a good Craic, a drink and a sing song, though "Singing" pubs are few and far between now, and you will often find fusion music, or even Heavy Rock, as often as you find traditional Irish. It is great though in some of the older Pubs, guys and gals will just rock up any time and join in what is really a Jam session.
The Irish humour is second to none.
When you live in a dark wet Island you simply have to have a laugh !
Thank you for the info phizzy.
I have been thinking of Ireland this week because I do story time for the kids and our theme was think green. I'll be dressing as a leprechaun all week.
I'll have to try some draught. (After work of course. .. a drunk leprechaun might scar the kiddies)
I went to the store to get St.Patrick's day stuff and had a hard time finding anything.
I think it would be fun to see a real Irish St. Patrick's day celebration.
