Happy St. Patrick's Day to all those Irish and Irish for a day! Even though, according to some people, I look like every nationality but Irish, from light-skinned black to Puerto Rican, I am in fact 50% Irish, and will enjoy the day wearing green, eating Irish potatoes, and hopefully getting my hands on some soda bread. As I've gotten older and presents have become less of a driving force in my life, I've gotten more and more into the holidays characterized by parades/parties/color coding. In honor of today's holiday, I planned to give a history of St. Patrick and the connection between his feast day and overindulgence in beer. St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland, lived the the 5th century. Born in England, Patrick was kidnapped and taken to Ireland as a slave; during his captivity he turned to God, who instructed him to drive all the snakes out of Ireland to make the land safe for excessive drinking.

JK. Actually, no one really knows St. Patrick's history, but it seems like he didn't do too much of anything (aside from bringing Christianity to Ireland). His wikipedia entry is full of "legend says"'s and "it is not certain"s. The church doesn't even celebrate his feast day anymore as an official feast day (at least not according to my official Basilica calendar)--it's an optional memorial. I was most interested in finding out how the day became so associated with drinking --it has to be more than just Irish people are drunks, right?-- but all my googling turned up really was that people like to drink. (I even asked the question on a holiday message board-type site and the response was "Because there are so many people who have a drinking problem and are looking for an excuse to drink") The best answer I could come up with was that, reportedly, the first St. Patrick's celebration took place in NYC at the Crown and Thistle Tavern in 1756, and the drinking tradition grew out of that. One thing that's for certain is you can enjoy your corned beef even though the holiday falls on a Friday in Lent, because, as is tradition, the Cardinal McCarrick gave us Catholics a dispensation from abstaining from meat.

Now for a little trivia:

• In what U.S. city is the longest-running celebration (since 1737) held?
• What city holds the largest parade? The second-largest parade?
• Name another patron saint of Ireland
• What does the shamrock symbolize?

Have a safe and happy day and a good weekend everyone