SEEN ON FACEBOOK:
Isn’t this a little like complaining about Santa Claus at Christmas, or pumpkins at Halloween? It’s St. Patrick’s Day. Not a holy religious experience.
Heh.
The complaint was that all the drunk leprechauns in observance of St. Patrick’s Day was offensive. This was one of the responses. Really.
I had to resist the Teaching Moment and restrained myself from typing up a 1500 word essaylet on Roman Catholic observances and the significance of Saints’ Days, and the particular significance of this Saints’ Day to the Irish people. But I still had to point out to Sassy McIgnorant that it is INDEED a holy religious experience.
I’m more and more struck by the rudeness of people when it comes to religious holidays. Granted, I’m not Irish. Granted, the Irish in America–many of them, that is–sort of screwed themselves by dyeing rivers green and acting like drunk monkeys every 17 March.
But they came here because they were starving. And this country turned them into slave labourers and cannon fodder. But they worked against all that, moving up the social ranks, working hard and making a life here. It was hard work in often bleak places, but they did it and did it well. They worked hard enough to make over this country AND to buy the freedom of their homeland. You gotta respect that.
If they want to take a day to drink and have a wake for the Ireland That Is No More, then have it.
I wonder if s/he meant to say a “wholly” religious experience. Probably not.
And keep in mind that the ability to parade in a public street (like any other resident/citizen) and display one’s political potential was a very significant part of getting the Irish enfranchised in the North in the 1850s…as a counter to the more-feared free black or Chinese vote. (Look up the Massachusetts hysteria over Chinese immigration during the Civil War and you’ll see what I mean…)
We forget the civic utility of the thing (and of course, the religious roots) now that it’s an excuse for public drunkenness.
Heck, we even forget the significance of the Irish roots. (And I’m pretty sure that most Irish would rather not be associated with puking green beer in the street, so I’m not sure they mind.) But back in the dim mists of the past, when I was a kid, if a person happened to wear green on St. Patrick’s Day, s/he would get a surprised* look and be asked, “oh, are you Irish?” Whereas now if a person doesn’t wear green s/he is asked why not, since everyone is supposed to wear green on that day.**
*The surprise pertains mostly to my neighborhood, where there were only a small handful of Irish-surnamed families. Unlike NYC or Chicago, St. Louis never had much Irish immigration.
**Or maybe this is just another Nashville thing like telling me that everyone, not just Christians, is supposed to put up a Christmas tree.
[…] Katherine Coble educates after she sees a comment on Facebook. SEEN ON FACEBOOK: Isn’t this a little like complaining about Santa Claus at Christmas, or pumpkins at Halloween? It’s St. Patrick’s Day. Not a holy religious experience. […]