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| Happy St. Patrick's Day |
Erin Go Bragh, Ireland Forever, an Anglicized variant of the Gaelic, Éirinn go Brách.
Aside from the obvious and important religious significance of St. Patrick's Day and, of course, the commercialized frivolity of the Irish Carnival, the holiday, as we know it, must be appreciated as a great American political, cultural protest. The way Americans have come to keep the day has become a worldwide phenomenon beloved by many, from school children, who enjoy the festive wearing of the green, to businesses seeking to cash in on their own green. Under some of the unfortunately acceptable racist stereotypes there lies the simple act of marching, assembly, that is ultimately American and freedom loving. George Washington, himself, encouraged the holiday as a way of showing solidarity with Irish he hoped to have join the Continental army in Philadelphia, Years later as the holiday gained popularity Irish Roman Catholics first marched through the aristocratic neighborhoods of New York City by design, in streets that they would have found themselves unwelcome only a short time earlier. Green was the color of revolution back in the "ole sod" and they were hanging people for wearing it. In the land of the free it was another story. Without those that brought us St. Patrick's Day there would be no Puerto Rican Day Parade, no Polanski Day, no West Indian Carnival or any of the other ethnic outpourings we enjoy and share. It's nice to think that perhaps that spirit is being respected when people of all backgrounds don the green on March 17.
