It’s not easy being green on St. Patrick’s Day
People tend to act a bit irrationally on St. Patrick's Day -- but we just assume the leprechaun made them do it.
A whole day loaded with leprechauns and chocolate gold coins and clovers is fun and filled with traditions.
I enjoy St. Patrick’s Day.
It’s not that the holiday is particularly magically delicious, it just comforts me that spring is scheduled to appear soon.
But a whole day loaded with leprechauns and gold coins and clovers is fun and filled with traditions. At least, until I tried to explain it to a gal from Russia.
“So you mess up your house on purpose?” she asked, trying to sort out the fun from the glum.
“Yes.”
“And, you blame it on the leprechaun?”
“Yes.”
“And, you spend the rest of the week drinking green milk and eating green bread?”
“Yes.”
Her confused look caused me to reflect on why I do the things I do on St. Patrick’s Day. So in defense of my Irish-esque celebration, here is my list of St. Patrick’s Day traditions that make no sense, but I do them anyway in the spirit of Irish tradition:
1. Eating Corned Beef and Cabbage.
Besides consuming my yearly allowance of sodium in one sitting, muscling through a meal of corned beef and cabbage is the environment where future Iron Men are born. Truthfully, I don’t mind stuffed cabbage. Rather it’s the process of cooking it that makes me queasy. Cooked cabbage will not be ignored, and its presence makes an odoriferous statement that takes until Easter to get out of your clothing.
2. Ingesting food that wasn’t meant to be green.
Whether it is pancakes, milk, bread, beer, eggs, cookies, punch — you name it — our commitment to upholding the “green-ness” of the day is required. My sister used to take the St. Patrick’s Day magic to a whole new level when a freshly cracked egg produced spring green insides. My next question, what are you doing with a hypodermic needle?
3. Wearing a preponderance of green.
It’s not our fault, really. There’s that pressure of getting pinched that gives us nightmares. I used to rely on the fact my eyes were green. That platform was challenged recently. Though far from unanimous, according to Yahoo, having green eyes does, in fact, count as wearing green. The fact that topic was addressed on Yahoo creates its own discussion.
4. Hiding gold coins.
Here’s a tip. Buy your chocolate coins early. Last year the nearby grocery store sold out of chocolate coins. Just imagine; a store running out of gold coins of all things. I was panicked until I went home and dug around in my couch cushions. To my delight (and a trace of horror) I found a handful of coins hidden in previous years. Score!
I realize I probably have a few of my St. Patrick’s Day facts a tad misaligned. But I figured since an entire country could embrace an Englishman and honor him as the Patron Saint of Ireland, I felt safe knowing my own version of celebrating a culture and a man who found hope in mankind in spite of his early hardships would be accepted.
In that light, perhaps searching for pots of gold at the end of rainbows isn’t too far off the mark after all.
