A long time ago, someone realized it was a pretty good excuse to get drunk and blame it on someone's Irish heritage. Later, people realized they liked having an official day to get drunk on, so it stuck.Daystar Clarion said:Edit: This is not a hate speech by the way, if anyone would care to educate me on the matter then I would be more than welcome.
So the real reason is that people just want an excuse to get rat arsed. Whether it be an Irish saint or god's son. I suppose that makes sense...Kross said:A long time ago, someone realized it was a pretty good excuse to get drunk and blame it on someone's Irish heritage. Later, people realized they liked having an official day to get drunk on, so it stuck.Daystar Clarion said:Edit: This is not a hate speech by the way, if anyone would care to educate me on the matter then I would be more than welcome.
See also, Thanksgiving and excessively large Dinners. Halloween and candy (and later, Halloween and slutty costumes). Christmas and presents, Valentines Day and sex, 4th of July and explosives...
All the good holidays specialize in something specific that people want more of, outside of just celebrating whatever the historical event is.
That would have made some sense. Though they don't do much drinking in in Bruges.Lono Shrugged said:Good choice of drinking movies I must say, Though you owe us a list of The best Irish produced films MovieBob! Otherwise me and the 30 or so people who represent the Irish film industry will come after your knees!
Don't forget that people think you're normal when you do it. You can set off fireworks any time you wish, but people won't think you're strange when you do it on the 4th. It's the same with drinking and St. Patrick.Daystar Clarion said:So the real reason is that people just want an excuse to get rat arsed. Whether it be an Irish saint or god's son. I suppose that makes sense...Kross said:A long time ago, someone realized it was a pretty good excuse to get drunk and blame it on someone's Irish heritage. Later, people realized they liked having an official day to get drunk on, so it stuck.Daystar Clarion said:Edit: This is not a hate speech by the way, if anyone would care to educate me on the matter then I would be more than welcome.
See also, Thanksgiving and excessively large Dinners. Halloween and candy (and later, Halloween and slutty costumes). Christmas and presents, Valentines Day and sex, 4th of July and explosives...
All the good holidays specialize in something specific that people want more of, outside of just celebrating whatever the historical event is.
It's really intersting from a sociological perspective when you put it that way...randommaster said:Don't forget that people think you're normal when you do it. You can set off fireworks any time you wish, but people won't think you're strange when you do it on the 4th. It's the same with drinking and St. Patrick.Daystar Clarion said:So the real reason is that people just want an excuse to get rat arsed. Whether it be an Irish saint or god's son. I suppose that makes sense...Kross said:A long time ago, someone realized it was a pretty good excuse to get drunk and blame it on someone's Irish heritage. Later, people realized they liked having an official day to get drunk on, so it stuck.Daystar Clarion said:Edit: This is not a hate speech by the way, if anyone would care to educate me on the matter then I would be more than welcome.
See also, Thanksgiving and excessively large Dinners. Halloween and candy (and later, Halloween and slutty costumes). Christmas and presents, Valentines Day and sex, 4th of July and explosives...
All the good holidays specialize in something specific that people want more of, outside of just celebrating whatever the historical event is.
It's also interesting from a business perspective. You can make just about any kind of food green on St. Patrick's Day and people will eat it without comment when they would normally not eat, or even complain. Try finding another time when you can serve green mashed potatoes.Daystar Clarion said:It's really intersting from a sociological perspective when you put it that way...randommaster said:Don't forget that people think you're normal when you do it. You can set off fireworks any time you wish, but people won't think you're strange when you do it on the 4th. It's the same with drinking and St. Patrick.Daystar Clarion said:So the real reason is that people just want an excuse to get rat arsed. Whether it be an Irish saint or god's son. I suppose that makes sense...Kross said:A long time ago, someone realized it was a pretty good excuse to get drunk and blame it on someone's Irish heritage. Later, people realized they liked having an official day to get drunk on, so it stuck.Daystar Clarion said:Edit: This is not a hate speech by the way, if anyone would care to educate me on the matter then I would be more than welcome.
See also, Thanksgiving and excessively large Dinners. Halloween and candy (and later, Halloween and slutty costumes). Christmas and presents, Valentines Day and sex, 4th of July and explosives...
All the good holidays specialize in something specific that people want more of, outside of just celebrating whatever the historical event is.
I saw it a few years ago. Bought it on tape at a pawn shop I work at for 50 Cents. Possibly the greatest thing I have ever laid eyes on. Too funny for words.Rainboq said:Man, I remember watching Strange Brew a while back, hilarious movie
Lots of reasons.Daystar Clarion said:I've never really understood the whole Saint Patrick's day thing in America.
Thanks for explaining that to me, I feel adequately enlightened now. To the lesser-ignorance cave! dudududududududunaaaa!AcacianLeaves said:Lots of reasons.Daystar Clarion said:I've never really understood the whole Saint Patrick's day thing in America.
1. Each subsequent generation of immigration to the US was met with disdain, thus forcing said immigrants to form communities of people from the same country of origin. So you get a lot of people of the same ancestry in one place, community, or family. Thus people of Irish ancestry lived close together, intermarried, etc. Add to the fact that Irish almost always equates to Catholic, and until recently marrying outside of your religion (especially Catholicism) was a big taboo. So you'd be surprised how 'Irish' many Americans actually are.
2. We identify more with the culture of our European ancestors because we have very little in the way of an 'American' culture. This is not a problem for Europe, where family and cultural history go back thousands of years. Yes, there are things that make us uniquely American, but none of us have had the same cultural experience (or a cultural experience as similar as people in, say, Ireland would have). Ask 10 Americans what "American Culture" means and you'll get 15 different answers, and those answers will usually be divided based at least somewhat on ancestry.
3. How many generations until we're no longer allowed to claim European descent? 2? 5? 1? As soon as one of our ancestors married a 'local' American (who was probably of a different European descent), are we no longer allowed to celebrate our family's cultural history?
Ultimately it's a lot more complicated than anything I can (or should) explain on The Escapist, but there's a lot going on with Americans and their ancestry.
Note that this really has little to do with St. Patrick's Day in it's current form. It's less a celebration of Irish ancestry and culture and more an excuse to get drunk in public (as has been said).