Re: Happy St. Patrick's Day!
Well i'm 100 percent irish, i play the pipes (and so do all the men of age in my family exluding one), i lived in ireland for two years, and i, too, am a devout roman catholic. Believe me when i say that it was a catholic holiday long before it was celebrated as it is now. Infact, in ireland they dont even celebrate St. Patricks day as we do, but nonetheless, it is a holy day. The Irish drink about as much as the Germans, British, and French, so saying that it is an excuse for irish people to drink is just ignorant. But either way, St. Patricks Day is really only an American 'Holiday', that is treated like mardi gras or any other party holiday because Americans began marketing it when it was realised that Chicago had a majority irish. Things spread from there, however the church came first; heck, if the Feast of Saint Joseph happened in ireland, then chances are we'd probably be having corned beef and cabbage in december. It all has to do with capitalist americans trying to give the people who buy their goods yet another excuse to spend money. I'm not saying this is wrong, but it is simply the truth. I mean, corned beef isnt even an irish dish; its an american pickled product which originated in chicago. The irish took appeal to it, however, becasue it was very similiar to boiled bacon (something the irish have been eating for centuries). The reason it caught on as it did is because beef prepared in a salt brine is cheaper than fresh pork, mostly because it doesnt spoil easily and because beef is often signifigantly cheaper than pork.
This message was last edited by the player at 01:55, Thu 18 Mar 2010.
