St. Patrick's Day Curmudgeon

St. Patrick's Day Curmudgeon

03.18.04 (2:31 pm)   [edit]
I don't celebrate St. Patrick's day.

People have a hard time understanding that, especially in light of my last name: Caughey. They automatically assume that because the name is ostensibly an "Irish" name that I'm of Irish descent and that I was raised in the Catholic church - they also assume that I must be a fan of drinking green beer till I puke, eating cabbage & corned beef (I do love a good Reuben though), dancing jigs, singing "Vaudeville" Irish songs like "Danny Boy," and wearing radioactive green clothing in what I find to be a horrific celebration of an awful ethnic stereotype - something we here in this city get to do more than once per year.

My family and ancestry is "Irish" only in that my ancestors moved from Scotland to Northern Ireland for a couple of generations before they set sail for the even greener pastures of America. We've (my forebears) been here in America (at least as far as my attempts at genealogy have proven) since before 1800 - way before the potato famine that sparked the mass migration of the Irish to America.

My family has been Presbyterian for literally centuries. We've not venerated saints since the time of Calvin, though I don't want to sound anti-Catholic in any way, shape or form. In fact, I went to a Catholic university for a year before transferring for financial reasons to a state university across town. For another example of how little religious distinctions really mean anymore in this day and age: my best friend, who grew up in the same church as me, converted to Catholicism when he got married 2 years ago and his family didn't even bat an eyelash about the switch - though that may have been because they were just so happy that he was actually settling down with someone. :wink:

We've also never needed an "excuse" like a single holiday to drink hard and party in my family, despite the "puritanical" roots of our "Calvinist" religion. The only thing that holds us back from partying more than we do is another family tradition: diabetes. Luckily for me, I was past the college-drink-till-you-dr op stage in my life long before the spectre of diabetes that had been shadowing me for years finally caught up with me.

St. Patrick's Day celebrations used to have a legitimate purpose as a means of protest (against what were, sad to say, probably some of my ancestor's harassment), strengthening ethnic identity and consolidating political power - not to mention venerating an important saint. What's unfortunate is that this celebration has become coopted by the very groups that it was aimed against and perverted into the stereotypical "amateur night" drunkfest that it's become, particularly in recent years.

I'd consider celebrating it if there were other equally offensive ethnic stereotype holidays such as a Polish one where people acted stupid and did things backwards, or a French (not Bastille day) one where everyone had to act snooty, eat snails and drink cheap wine - you get the idea. At least then there wouldn't be one group singled out and something like diversity would appear in un-PC holidays.

I don't need a "holiday" to celebrate my ethnic heritage (real or imaginary), especially not one that cheerfully celebrates how an ethnic group was abused and vilified.

Okay, now that I've probably succeeded in pissing off all 3 members of my audience, I think my work here for the day is done.

Maybe tomorrow, I'll get down off my soapbox and write some actual library-related stuff again.
:wink: