St. Patrick’s Day is a holiday celebrated in more countries than any other international festival. Some festivities celebrated include wearing green, attending parades, drinking, pinching people, and eating food related to the holiday.
St. Patrick’s Day started in 1631 when the Roman Catholic Church established a day honoring St. Patrick. St. Patrick is honored because he preached the gospel and converted Ireland to Christianity in forty years. Normally in the US not very many people talk about this, but everyone does a good job at the celebration aspect.
Freshman Emelia Malpass said that for participating in festivities during this holiday she “like(s) to pinch people, specifically on their weenus (a weenus or weenis is slang for the excess skin on your elbow). I pinch them there because it’s hard to feel pain on a weenus.” She also thinks that St. Patrick’s Day has been turned into a commercial holiday which may be agreed on by a lot of people.
Branching off of the commercial holiday thing, that would explain the fact that historical context is not being talked about as much as well as the stereotypical decorations being sold at every store, such as shamrocks, pots of gold, and those little green top hats.
In fact, commercialization increases the amount of people participating on this day. According to Statista, 61% of the USA celebrated this holiday in 2023. In 2022, 54% of Americans celebrated and in 2021, 49% celebrated. This shows the increase in participation since COVID-19 happened.
Freshman Genevive Baka said when asked if she celebrated the holiday, “No I don’t celebrate St. Patrick’s Day other than wearing green because I’m scared of getting pinched by redhead people.” She also stated, “I just don’t really see it as an actual holiday and I think it more like April Fool’s Day.” From this, we have both positive and negative views of the conception of the day. It is interesting to see perspectives that vary and contradict each other.
As time passes, people may be looking for something fun to do and maybe the percentage of people participating in St. Patrick’s Day this year will increase depending on if more people view it the way Malpass does. Its history is not talked about as much and has turned into just celebrating with little knowledge of the holiday. Festivities still go on and Ed Sheeran’s children still run around rainbows with pots of gold at the end.
Photo by Michael F.
