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Saint Patrick's Day
Since Celtic means all the Celts, next on the calendar is St. Patrick’s Day (which for us is “Night”). We get together at a local pub last year at The Common Table and have singing and dancing, some talks and drinking, corned beef and colcannon, which is a combo of cabbage and mashers. Traditionally people drink green colored beer on Saint Patrick's Day, we generally don’t drink green beer because we live in Oregon where they make really good beer and we just want to drink that and dying a microbrew green is just……wrong on so many levels. Yes, it’s me. I play the guitar. Not real well but I have a lot of fun.
Yes, it’s me. I play the guitar. Not real well but I have a lot of fun. Saint Patrick is the patron saint of Ireland and Saint Patrick's Day the international celebration honoring him. I’m sure most people think we are celebrating his birthday, March 17, but in fact, it is his date of death. We always celebrate that day whether convenient or not. Last year I made the really boneheaded mistake of giving up ALCOHOL for Lent, which of course St. Patrick’s Day falls inside of. Next time I’ll be a little more specific and give up, say, red wine. Not just make a blanket statement. What was I thinking? (I did however, survive and was the better for it.) Anyway, Saint Patrick was a Brit and when he was around sixteen he was captured and carried off as a slave to Ireland. Patrick, as a captive for six years worked as a herdsman (shepherd). He did return home for a while but then came back to Ireland to convert the Pagans to Christianity. The whole bit about riding Ireland of snakes is pretty mythical and highly unlikely as there really were/are not much in the way of native snakes in Ireland. The List of reptiles of Ireland has only one land reptile species native to Ireland, the viviparous or common lizard. However, the story of Saint Patrick using the shamrock as a teaching tool to explain The Trinity, is likely and why the shamrock is a national symbol of Ireland.
The bagpipes aren’t really a part of the whole Saint Patrick story but who cares? I'm sure someone was playing them back then! They are certainly a part of Irish culture and they photograph well on The Common Table’s common table. A nice photograph in Oregon!
The Wiki on Saint Patrick's Day
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