Tag Archives: Ireland

St. Patrick’s Day – holiday practices

Text:

KT: “So St. Patrick’s Day is definitely a holiday. It’s a pretty popular holiday in the US and think in Ireland now too, but we celebrate it more traditionally American maybe. We [her family] usually try to go to mass. Sometimes it’s hard for you guys [her kids] because of school, but I always try to go if I can. It’s a Holy Day of Obligation, so technically you are required to go to mass. We also always wear green of some kind. I still jokingly pinch people if they aren’t in green, especially if they come to my house for dinner, they know better. St. Patrick’s Day is always during Lent, so when it falls on a Friday in Lent, it’s nice because there is no fasting on St. Patrick’s Day. We usually have dinner with the whole family. As you know, me, your grandmother, and your aunt always make corned beef, cabbage, and boiled potatoes. There’s also usually lots of good drinking going on too.”

Me: “Why do you make those dishes specifically?”

KT: “It’s what my family has always had. I mean even growing up that what’s we had. I know it’s a pretty cheap dish, which my family was pretty poor growing up, so it was kind a cheap meal, but still special. I mean it’s pretty famously what you eat on St. Patrick’s Day, but I think it had something to do with when all the poor Irish immigrants fled to America, it was what they could afford to celebrate with. Your dad and his family never celebrated much when he was little, so it’s pretty much the meal now. I like to keep the traditions the same.”

Me: “Did you ever go to bars to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day?”

KT: “Probably when I was younger. When I lived in New York I could barely afford to fly home for Christmas and such, so me and your dad usually celebrated with friends in the city. I’m sure we went out to bars and stuff, as young people do, but it was always more of a religious and family centered holiday when I was growing up. We also watched the parade when we [KT and her husband] lived in the city, but we don’t really do that so much now. I didn’t really do it when I was younger either. As you know, now we obviously celebrate at home with a big family [aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, etc.] dinner.”

Context:

KT is a 59 year old from California. She is from Irish descent, as well as Catholic. Therefore, for her St. Patrick’s Day is both a cultural holiday practice and a religious holiday practice. I gathered this information in an interview that I recorded and then transcribed.

Analysis:

St. Patrick is an interesting holiday because its many different practices hold many different origins. Most of the practices were popularized by Irish immigrants in the United States, rather than in Ireland. For example, corned beef and cabbage is a distinctly American custom that was started by Irish immigrants, which now serves a traditional St. Patrick’s Day meal. However, some aspects of the holiday practice, especially when religious in nature, stem from Ireland, such as going to mass to celebrate the patron saint of Ireland, St. Patrick, on his feast day. Feast days celebrates and venerates saints, usually on the day the died. The practice of St. Patrick’s in the United States developed to celebrate Irish culture. It is an interesting case of acculturation, as many traditional ways of celebration have been forgone and the more commercial aspects, such as parades, dyeing the river green, and bar crawls have overtaken to become what the holiday is popularly known for. In many ways, the holiday has become a sort of tourist attraction to Irish culture, one that is usually incorrect, a parody of, or an over exaggeration. Even so, for people from Irish or Catholic cultures, this day is often celebrated differently from the masses in order to give proper fidelity or honor to the cultural/religious holiday. While it is still a day of celebration, it is centered around family and worship, rather than parades or drinking. Therefore, the holiday practice varies widely based on the person who is celebrating because the cultural/religious holiday has become widely popularized and commercialized.

Irish Joke 1 – Light as a Feather

1) “Which Irish rock is lighter than a feather?”

“A Shamrock!” 

2) Although I’m half Korean, I’m also half Irish. I heard this riddle from my Irish grandmother. She told me this riddle as the first in a series of riddles saying that she wanted to start off giving me the “easiest one” she could think of. She said she wanted to tell me this specific riddle because it was an opportunity for her, a devout Christian, to teach me something about the importance of the “shamrock,” which to her was not merely a shrub, but could be used as a visual symbol to represent the Holy Trinity. 

3) Since I couldn’t visit my grandmother personally, I had zoom called her and asked for her four favorite riddles. 

4) Allegedly, the Shamrock was first used as a representation of the Holy Trinity according to lore about St. Patrick. The comparison “light as a feather” has ties to symbolic associations with freshness, holiness, renewal – shamrock’s etymology means “young clover,” so the connection with lightness, youth, and vitality become even more apparent. 

Irish Joke 2 – Eyes

1)  

“What has eyes, but it can’t see?” 

“A potato!” 

2) My Irish grandmother shared this with me with hopes to express how much of a staple potatoes are in Irish cuisine. She said that even though this riddle may seem overly simplistic, the potato has sustained the Irish population for generations. She even mentioned to me that in 1845 the Irish Potato Famine literally wiped out over 1 million people because of a blight. 

3) This riddle was shared with me by my grandmother, amongst a set of 3 other riddles, over a zoom call that I had with her. 

4) I’ve heard other similar riddles such as “a needle” to answer the above riddle, but it’s my first time hearing this rendition. The fact that an oral tradition even exists in which a potato is personified through the riddle, suggests that the crop was a major form of sustenance for the Irish people. At the time of the famine, around 50% of Ireland’s population was dependent on potatoes for their major source of food. 

Irish Joke 3 – clover

1) “How don’t you iron a four-leaf clover?” 

“Because you shouldn’t press your luck!” 

2) My Irish grandmother saved this riddle for the end of our conversation because she said that she herself collected 4 leaf clovers during childhood and that she still believes them to be truly lucky. Although she admits to herself being slightly superstitious, she suggests that I undertake some superstitious beliefs to protect myself. 

3) This riddle was shared with me by my grandmother, amongst a set of 3 other riddles, over a zoom call that I had with her. 

4) The riddle suggests that “luck” is a real and precious force that influences our lives. The four leaf clover has connections to a rich oral tradition. It has been associated with protection from evil Celtic fairies, and other legends state that Eve removed a four-leaf clover before leaving the Garden of Eden. Thus, for Irish people, four-leaf clover folklore is derived from a sense of sacredness, regarding luck – a symbol of good within a dangerous world. 

Irish Joke 4 – Ghost

1) 

“On St. Patrick’s Day, what does a ghost drink?”

“Boos!” 

2) My Irish grandmother first heard this riddle during college in 1967 when drinking at a pub the night of St. Patrick’s Day. She shared this with me because she said the camaraderie she felt that day was unlike anything she’d ever experienced and that she wanted to share this memory with me. 

3) This riddle was shared with me by my grandmother, amongst a set of 3 other riddles, over a zoom call that I had with her. 

4) Based on the riddle, one can clearly see that there is a celebratory nature tied to alcohol consumption in Ireland. There are practices such as “wetting the baby’s head,” which embodies a joyful drinking celebration when a baby is born to spontaneous meetups at a local pub. Although Ireland has a complex relationship with alcohol – indicated by rates of alcohol abuse, it is undeniable that alcohol has an almost communal, even spiritual effect that enhances kinship to great lengths. This riddle’s association of alcohol with ghosts shows that alcohol is almost tied to a deeper cultural and superstitious framework.