I'd like to give a shout out to all my Doyles and O’Brians out there. With a family steeped in Irish ancestry, I look particularly look forward to one holiday each year: St. Patrick’s Day. Yet, it has come and gone, along with our understanding of why we were celebrating in the first place. Warmly received by Americans and college students everywhere, St. Patrick’s Day is never forgotten but is just another excuse to throw on your tackiest green and drink the night away. This day, however, holds much more tradition and history than we give credit for and much is based here in the United States. St. Patrick’s unique history in America deserves an even more special day on our calendar as a national holiday and Guinness’s Proposition 317, to make St. Patrick’s Day a national holiday, has the potential to do just that.
Besides losing memory of what happened that last St. Patty’s Day, most also forget why and how this grand holiday came about in the first place. A sea of green washes over America as young and old alike could be seen in all shades gulping down as much Guinness their stomachs can muscle on this eventful day (or weekend depending on whether you had a midterm on Wednesday). Unfortunately no one ever stops to wonder about why our American tradition is so prevalent or even find out who St. Patrick even is. So let’s give our livers a break and work our brains a little harder as we delve into the Emerald Isle’s patron saint.
It all started in the land of Britain. No, that isn’t a typo; chalk that up as the first thing I bet you didn’t know about the late St. Patrick. He was British, born and raised. Raised, that is, until he was kidnapped at the mere age of fifteen by a gang of marauding Irish looking to enslave able bodies to shepherd their sheep. The Irish were clearly off to a bad start if this guy was supposed to save and reform their country. However, Patrick was then directed by a series of visions to escape home, be ordained as a priest and set upon a mission to help the people of Ireland. So he returned in 432 AD and began converting those pagan kidnappers to Christianity by building schools and monasteries along the Northern and Southern coasts, therefore “running the snakes” out of Ireland.
The death of this gracious saint was then used as a religious holiday for thousands of years to celebrate his many deeds and accomplishments; as luck would have it, March 17 falls during the time of Lent and thus the Irish used it as a day of reprieve from their sacrifices to close shop, go to church, and of course indulge in the traditional pint of beer.
So why should something whose origin had little to nothing to do with America be honored with being distinguished as a national holiday? It is not the origin, but the way in which we have embraced such a fine day — and that the Irish brought it along with them. The Irish have existed here almost as long as anyone else has, but the biggest influx occurred during the Great Potato Famine. They became the salt-of-the-earth, pursuing the American Dream, took many jobs other Americans refused, and are responsible for the great infrastructure that allowed business to boom and expand as quickly as it did. For all who have sacrificed for this country, they are among the best.
Thus with the respect they have shown us, a little is deserved in return. And even beyond that, the shear magnitude the holiday has grown to since its inception in the United States is even more impressive. The first St. Patrick’s Day parade was held in New York City in 1762 earlier than our Independence Day was even declared; since then they have grown in popularity and numbers to Irish and non-Irish alike. Chicago even throws environmental protection to the side and dies their entire river green to celebrate; today, however, the amount of dye has been toned down so the river is only Irish for a few hours while the people continue into the night. President Kennedy called it a “day of dedication as well as purely American as it is Irish, recalling for all that ours is a nation founded, sustained, and now preserved in the cause of liberty.” Proposition 317 has the potential to do just that and preserve this day of dedication; Guinness has created an online petition to get a million signatures to put the proposal before Congress.
So get online and sign away! We need this day off of work and school not just to act as the Irish do but to respect and honor what they have done for this country. If that’s not enough, George Washington granted his Continental Army their first day off in two years on St. Patrick’s Day as a message to the Irish to show their solidarity in the fight for independence. Let us show our solidarity and give this day the honor it deserves. Washington recognized it, why can’t we?
Bobby Laverty’s column appears Fridays in The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at b.laverty@cavalierdaily.com.
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