Email to Family on St. Patrick's Day:
Happy St. Patrick's Day Family,
How's she goin' bye? So, it's "Paddy's day" and here we are spread across the globe! So it's not even "Paddy's Day" for the Irish diaspora at the same time. Still I hope that each of us are honoring St. Patrick's day with the quite reflection it deserves.
For example. This morning I struggled over whether I should wear green today or not. The holiday has been so commercialized and seems to be more about the charactature of an Irish person than anything else. Of course then I also recalled that St. Patrick's Day is a Christian Holiday. A more vile cause for celebration I can hardly find (of course so is Christmas and Easter and Valentines' Day but they all involve chocolate). So: no, no green for this Irish Descendant. I will not be the establishment's trained monkey, dressing in green and acting the cheery wordsmith for all to enjoy!
But, wait. There is alcohol involved in St. Patrick's festivities. And, of course, it's as much a Christian holiday as there is truth in the story that St. Patrick himself drove the snakes out of Ireland (archeological evidence suggests there were no snakes in Ireland in the first place). St. Patrick's day no doubt represents some Celtic holiday, incorporated into the Christian calendar as a means of appeasing the Irish and reducing their rebellion against the Church. It was part of the bargain that brought them into the Roman world (near it's end) and is a symbol of the bargaining power that the Irish held (for how many others were absorbed by Borg like Romans without a holiday).
So St. Patrick's day is not a symbol of Christianity, but of Irish strength. And it's not an opportunity for the establishment to look down their noses at the wretched Irish, but a time at which they cannot oppress the Irish enthusiasm for life.
So, I don't know about you guys but I have decided to go have a drink of the hard stuff tonight. And of course I'm wearing green to blend in with the voyeurs.
Love you all,