St. Patrick’s Day — like many holidays celebrated in the United States — is another excuse to eat, drink and dress up in a silly outfit. But what do people who live in Ireland do for the holiday?
University senior Sarah McNaughton, who recently came back from interning abroad in Ireland, found one similarity between the Irish and most Americans when it comes to St. Patrick’s Day.
“The Irish know how to party,” she said.
McNaughton is Irish and has practiced Irish step-dancing at St. Paddy’s Day events and pubs since she was young.
At her internship in Ireland, she worked at the communication company Maxmedia, which has been preparing for St. Paddy’s Day events for a few months now.
McNaughton said that although the holiday is a huge celebration in Dublin, it also has deep cultural meaning that does more than draw tons of tourists.
“I know it’s a big tourist thing,” she said. “But it’s also a big celebration with the Irish.”
Dublin is painted green for St. Paddy’s Day, and the main river in Dublin, the River Liffee is actually dyed green, while green sheets are hung along its boardwalk.
Traditional dancing and music take over the city on the holiday, as well as nontraditional events like this year’s “St. Patrick’s Salsa Festival” in Dublin.
Ireland also holds parades and celebrations that are often several days long in cities such as Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Armagh, Galway, Wexford and Londonderry.
Dublin holds one of the largest parades kicking off its four-day festival, but Londonderry, Northern Ireland’s second largest city, holds a seven-day celebration starting on March 10 that includes a parade of musicians, goblins, fairies and performers, then several musical, cultural and children’s events throughout the city, building up until St. Patrick’s Day on March 17.
An American equivalent to Ireland’s celebrations, McNaughton said, is in New York City, where there is a dense Irish population.
Though St. Patrick’s Day has been an excuse to party and draw in tourism, some devout Catholics in Ireland still use the holiday to celebrate St. Patrick himself, the patron saint of Ireland.
St. Patrick has been associated with a few legends, such as driving snakes out of Ireland.
“We Irish, we love our legends,” McNaughton said.
But what St. Patrick is best known for, and what many Irish natives celebrate him for, is the gift of freedom and liberation he gave Ireland. And that is something truly worth throwing a party for.
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St. Patrick’s a man worthy of a party
Daily Emerald
March 13, 2011
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