Thursday, March 17, 2011

Eight years and counting

Wow, has it really been 8 years?  I remember my first day like it was yesterday and it was not a good one!  Much has changed over the course of those years so here's to what the next 8 ++ have to bring and much like the holiday I started on, hope they're lucky.
Speaking of luck, Happy St. Patrick's Day!  Not knowing more than you drink your face off on St. Patty's Day, I decided to do a little research on what this holiday really means so here goes...bottoms up!
Saint Patrick's Day (Irish: Lá Fhéile Pádraig) is a religious holiday celebrated internationally on March 17th. It is named after Saint Patrick, the most commonly recognised of the patron saints of Ireland and is observed by the Roman Catholic Church, the Anglican Communion (especially the Church of Ireland), the Eastern Orthodox Church and Lutherans. Saint Patrick's Day was made an official feast day in the early 17th century, and has gradually become a celebration of Irish culture in general.
The day is generally characterised by the attendance of church services, wearing of green attire (especially shamrocks), and the lifting of Lenten restrictions on fasting and drinking...there it is, which is often proscribed during the rest of the season.
I knew the drinking would come sooner or later but funny how it's way at the end!?
Saint Patrick's Day is a public holiday in the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland, Newfoundland and Labrador and in Montserrat. It is also widely celebrated by the Irish diaspora, especially in places such as the United Kingdom, Canada, the United States, Argentina, Australia, and New Zealand, among others.
So how do you do St. Patty's right?
and really wrong!
"Many an opportunity is lost because a man is out looking for four-leaf clovers"~Author Unknown









1 comment:

  1. I will be drinking my own homebrewed Irish Read Ale!

    This is something that I learned last year when one of my co-workers showed up in a non-green outfit:

    "...But for a growing number of people, taking part in the fun means wearing orange. According to this increasingly popular tradition, Protestants wear orange, and the green clothing attire is left to Catholics. Thus, the color you wear is actually dependent on your religious denomination. Admittedly, this color tradition is not well known, but it has deep roots in Irish history.

    Protestant Irish have been known as “orange” ever since 1690 when William of Orange (William III), the King of England, Scotland, and Ireland, defeated King James II, a Roman Catholic, in the Battle of the Boyne near Dublin. William's victory would ensure Protestant military dominance on the island and has been a source of tension ever since. Although the “Orange” in William's name actually referred to a province in southern France, the color reference stuck. This is why orange now appears in the Irish flag – to symbolize the Protestant minority in Ireland."

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