Sure Saint Patrick was a Saint… but Man Could He Party!
I love Saint Patrick’s Day. It’s a terrible excuse for people to throw on the only green thing they own, drink way too much Guinness and end up face down in a pile of emerald trinkets. I’m a little Irish - which basically means nothing - so I take a little pride in rolling out for every March 17th hell raising. Shit… I used to take off from work every year for the festivities. I don’t know… there’s something about knocking back a Guinness at 9am that *feels* Irish… and a little wrong… and yet, so very right. And the fact that you’re usually in bed by dinner time is a Win! Win!
These days I don’t participate so much… because you know, I’m responsible and what-not. I usually get to knock back a single Guinness on my way home from work… and I try to wear something green… which is kind of lame. So as I dipped into the white, foamy head of my single glass of velvety black goodness… I got to thinking… I’ll bet that Saint Patrick could party!
So I hit up Wikipedia to learn more about him. I bounced around the known and supposed facts of his tumultuous life (to be fair, it was the 5th century… I’ll bet life in general was pretty damn “tumultuous”). I came across this quote (completely used out of context):
Across the sea will come Adze-head, crazed in the head,
his cloak with hole for the head, his stick bent in the head.
He will chant impieties from a table in the front of his house;
all his people will answer: “so be it, so be it.”
…and the guy banished snakes. All of them. If you ask me… it sounds like that guy could party!
Then, I started poking around the history and traditions of Saint Patrick’s Day. Evidently, it’s a big deal in Argentina. Who knew? And did you know, there’s an Irish Association of South Korea. Yeah. That’s funny all by itself.
And of course it’s a huge drunk-fest here in the States. We even dye rivers green. I know they say it’s safe, but that can’t be good for the water supply. I wonder why other saint-specific, day-long-drunk-fests haven’t caught on. I mean, the Roman Catholic Calendar of Saints is a mile a long. There is Saint Stan’s Day on April 11. The guy was Polish. We could grill up kielbasa and drink Zywiec. That’s right, Zywiec.
