LITTLE GREEN MEN
Top o' the mornin' to ya!
It's St. Patrick's Day and I hope you are into the green beer and dancing a little jig today. If you're not Irish yourself (not mentioning any names - DAD!!!) you might want to find someone who is and give them a kiss.
I could be that I am totally out of the loop because I don't have television (and therefore I've relatively limited exposure to mass media), but it appears as though St. Paddy's is a much more low-key event in England than in many other countries further from the land of the leprechaun. Canada and the States both certainly have pretty big parties planned for today/tonight and there'll be a lot of green worn about town. True, it is early in the day, but the most I've heard of lucky charms is a smallish header on the BBC's website and the near-constant, inane playing of the Irish girlband "Bewitched" on the radio. One would think they've never heard of that other Irish band, a little group known as U2.
I wonder, since the Irish have St. Patrick's, and Scots have Robbie Burns, who do the English fete as an excuse to drink funny-coloured beer or eat parts of animals that should otherwise be unmentioned? Cromwell? (And Robin, you know I am depending on you for an answer here).
posted by Amanda Grout @ 11:41 am
2 comments
2 Comments:
Hi, it's Warren.
Today I was decked out in green, and I only used green chalk in class. I wrote "Happy St. Patrick's Day" clearly on the board. The kids thought I'd must have banged my head and gone insane. Scotlands plays today as very low key. People certainly know the day, but they don't do anything about it, much less dress up in green. Green around here is a clear support for Celtic FC, and if you don't want to start a war, you don't bother getting in between Celtic and Rangers FC. But, greened up I was, and I explained what St. Patrick's Day was for people in North America, and they were amazed. They had no idea that people would celebrate this day, and even drink green beer! People here do get a lot of North American (i.e. American) culture, but a lot of it gets lost in translation.
You rang? (Robin here, a little late)
Cromwell is definitely out; as a Puritan, he was wholely against having fun in any way shape or form. Personally, I don't need any excuse to drink funny coloured beer or eat odd parts of animals, but that might just be me.
England doesn't really have a national day of this sort, some people are trying to turn St George's day into that sort of thing, but the likes of the BNP rather made English nationalism a little unacceptable unfortunately.
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