It's St. Patrick's Day Eve. Excited? Me neither. This year, I'm getting the impression that no one is really enjoying it. It's always been kind of a difficult sell: it's a holiday focused on heavy drinking and stereotypes. So it's great for drinkers (who get an excuse to drink) and children (who have a nice easy topic for the day's colouring assignments.)
For anyone else, there's not a lot. You wear green, and either drink enough to regret it, or avoid the people who are drinking. Actual Irish people are uncomfortable with the caricaturing. And this year, I even found people online getting riled up over abbreviating it as "St. Patty's Day" rather than the apparently correct "St. Paddy's Day." You'll notice that the tag I've been using on St. Patrick’s-related articles uses the former. Whoops, sorry I disrespected the religious figure we honour by wearing silly hats and drinking to unconsciousness.
So we need a new way of celebrating St. Patrick's Day. I'm not sure what that could be. Perhaps emphasize Celtic music? Play up the snake-charming angle? Competitions to read Ulysses in twenty-four hours?
Showing posts with label St. Patty's. Show all posts
Showing posts with label St. Patty's. Show all posts
Monday, March 16, 2015
Sunday, March 16, 2014
A Note Before I Enter My Green, Drunk-Proof Bunker
A couple of years ago, St. Patrick's day parties in London, Ontario got out of control and resulted in a riot big enough to make the BBC World news crawl. As a resident of rival Kitchener-Waterloo, I have to admit to a sense of schadenfreude. But like the schadenforde from watching Toronto struggle with Rob Ford, an honest person has to admit that it could happen anywhere. London students are no more unruly than anyone else's, and here in a city with two universities and a college, it could just as soon happen in KW.
And sure enough, it is. It turns out that St. Patrick's day parties near KW's universities have been growing, to the point that police are taking notice. It's much like the end-of-school-year parties that used to trouble the same neighborhoods. So now they're trying to reduce the St. Patrick's parties using the same strategy: by setting up a more organized rival party to encourage less anarchic revelry.
But as with the Ford situation, there is also some genuine schadenfreude, and that comes from watching a problem blow up in society's face, after we collectively looked the other way for so long. We know that underage drinking is epidemic, and teens get trained early on that recreation means drinking, and drinking means drinking 'til you pass out. Then we send them away from supervision for the first time, and it's to a place where there's lots of stress and little time for relaxation, and where alcohol consumption is a big joke.
It's obviously a recipe for disaster. Rather than be surprised at the London riot, we should be surprised it doesn't happen more often. But instead we look the other way and pretend it's not a problem, or at least not a problem that affects us.
And sure enough, it is. It turns out that St. Patrick's day parties near KW's universities have been growing, to the point that police are taking notice. It's much like the end-of-school-year parties that used to trouble the same neighborhoods. So now they're trying to reduce the St. Patrick's parties using the same strategy: by setting up a more organized rival party to encourage less anarchic revelry.
But as with the Ford situation, there is also some genuine schadenfreude, and that comes from watching a problem blow up in society's face, after we collectively looked the other way for so long. We know that underage drinking is epidemic, and teens get trained early on that recreation means drinking, and drinking means drinking 'til you pass out. Then we send them away from supervision for the first time, and it's to a place where there's lots of stress and little time for relaxation, and where alcohol consumption is a big joke.
It's obviously a recipe for disaster. Rather than be surprised at the London riot, we should be surprised it doesn't happen more often. But instead we look the other way and pretend it's not a problem, or at least not a problem that affects us.
Saturday, March 17, 2012
Apparently, It's Not Easy Being Green
Walking around town today, I was surprised just how many people made an effort to wear green. I didn't personally. No, not as some sort of statement, but because if you're not Irish, nor do you drink, St. Patrick's Day doesn't impact on your life that much.
Most of these people were making a special effort to wear green, since they were clearly straining the capabilities or their wardrobes to fit in. I'm not sure why - the bars will serve you no matter what colour you're wearing. Besides, the Irish flag has two more colours in it. Why not wear orange and white and then act all superior?
Here are some clumsy efforts at St. Patty's wear, all of which I saw today:
On that last note, bonus marks to the guy who was inexplicably wearing a Laos T-shirt. Though he appeared to be both South-East Asian and rather confused, so I'm assuming that wasn't an ironic statement. Speaking of which, imagine how bizarre this must seem to a new immigrant who sets up a restaurant based on their culture. One Saturday, no one comes in, and you can't explain why.
Anyway, I was going to post a big rant about the phrase "luck of the Irish," since they don't seem to be particularly lucky people, so I'd just as soon have the luck of the Belgians, say. But Mental_Floss has managed to explain how the phrase really came to be.
Most of these people were making a special effort to wear green, since they were clearly straining the capabilities or their wardrobes to fit in. I'm not sure why - the bars will serve you no matter what colour you're wearing. Besides, the Irish flag has two more colours in it. Why not wear orange and white and then act all superior?
Here are some clumsy efforts at St. Patty's wear, all of which I saw today:
- Teal
- Day-glo yellowy-green that seemed to be left over from 1990.
- A store that moved the only green items of clothing to the front window, which turned out to be cheap bathrobes.
- A green shirt which, upon closer inspection, turned out to be a Brazil shirt.
On that last note, bonus marks to the guy who was inexplicably wearing a Laos T-shirt. Though he appeared to be both South-East Asian and rather confused, so I'm assuming that wasn't an ironic statement. Speaking of which, imagine how bizarre this must seem to a new immigrant who sets up a restaurant based on their culture. One Saturday, no one comes in, and you can't explain why.
Anyway, I was going to post a big rant about the phrase "luck of the Irish," since they don't seem to be particularly lucky people, so I'd just as soon have the luck of the Belgians, say. But Mental_Floss has managed to explain how the phrase really came to be.
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