Romance Weekly Blog Hop - St. Patrick's Day

Every Tuesday, the members of Romance Writer's Weekly (RWW) get together for a blog hop. We are a terrific support group for fellow Romance Authors and love to share our experiences, give and receive help with our writing dilemmas, and promote one another's work.

Romance Writer's Weekly also has a website with a blog, where we spotlight, promote, and post interesting articles about writing via our members. We also issue a newsletter and can be found on Facebook and Twitter @LoveChatWrite.

If you arrived here after having visited with Carolyn Spear, I thank you.

This week, Betty Bolte says - It's St. Patrick's Day! and wants us to tell if and how we celebrate it, or how we'd like to.

I don't celebrate the holidays.

Any of them.

Including my birthday, which also happens to fall on a major holiday.

March 17th is a Feast Day in honor of St. Patrick, who wasn't Irish at all but Scottish.

Born at Kilpatrick, near Dumbarton, in Scotland, in the year 387 and died at Saul, Downpatrick, Ireland, 17 March, 493.

Sold into slavery at a young age (16), to a chieftan named Milchu in Dalriada, a territory of the present county of Antrim in Ireland, where for six years he tended his master's flocks in the valley of the Braid and on the slopes of Slemish, near the modern town of Ballymena.

His master, Milchu, was a druidical high priest, and Patrick became familiar with all the details of Druidism. St. Patrick is now credited with bringing Christianity to Ireland.

The 'snakes' as we like to refer to them -- and literally, I might add -- in which St. Patrick is often credited with having driven out of Ireland, weren't slithering reptiles but the Druids.

A few fun facts about the day from a Time Magazine article titled How America Invented St. Patrick's Day

IRELAND

Irish bars didn’t begin opening on March 17 until the mid-1960s

In 1996, the St. Patrick’s Festival, which still runs to this day, is a four-day event of music, treasure hunts, performances, and of course, a two-hour parade that draws up to half a million people onto the streets of Dublin.

AMERICA

The day grew in significance following the end of the Civil War and the arrival, across the 19th century, of ever increasing numbers of Irish immigrants.

St. Patrick’s Day was a public declaration of a belief in the future of Ireland as a nation free from British rule, and a strict adherence to the values and liberties that the U.S. offered.

Corned beef and cabbage — rarely eaten in Ireland but commonplace in American cities as a springtime dish — became the meal for March 17, and over the years all types of green food, including milk shakes, beer, and candy.

As a child, yes, I celebrated and always (still do) tried to wear something green. Probably because I wanted to avoid being pinched at all cost. Ouch!

Mine is Shillelagh McTavern

Another fun fact: it wasn't until my first term in college that I learned the story behind wearing orange on that particular day. In case you're not familiar, if you wear orange on March 17th it means you are a) Scottish/British and b) opposed to the idea of celebrating anything Irish (or Catholic).

LOL - who knew!

I also really liked making shamrocks from an assortment of green construction paper. Getting to add the white frill from paper doilies was a bonus.

And, if I drew one rainbow I drew a thousand of them. I remember how elaborate they started to get with age, too. Clouds on either side, then the pot of gold at one end, and later a leprechaun as well.

I also recall that hunting for the elusive four-leaf clover was a huge to-do on St. Patrick's Day! I sometimes find myself doing it now, and it's still fun.


I also once tried a McShake. Ugh. My word, how minty can a shake be to make the teeth rattle inside the head? I attempted to mellow it by adding Nestle' morsels, thinking it would be like eating mint choco-chip ice cream. That only made things worse. It was the one and only time I wanted a McShake, thank you.

As a wife and mother, I did the corned beef and cabbage thing on March 17th. It was actually my first time ever tasting the meal and I LOVED IT! As the years wore on, though, the price of corned beef grew disproportionate with my income. Sadly, I can't recall the last time I made or ate that delicious dish.

When I was little, I used to dye water green and drink it, and later on it was Vernor's, but to-date I have never had a green beer -- not even during my time spent in beer capitols of the country (college campuses) -- nor in any of the many nightclubs or bars I once frequented.

I am Big Gassy Leprechaun

In Detroit, we have a Thanksgiving Parade that ends up being televised nationally, but we also have a huge (and I do mean huge) St. Patrick's Day Parade. Many of them, in fact, in a lot of cities throughout the state. Not in my city, but whatever.

Nope. I've never attended a parade and I don't feel the need to start now, either.

I would, however, like to maybe be inside one of the bars that open at 6 a.m. on that day and TRY to spend as much time hopping them as I can. At least until I can't drink another green beer or the crowds/noise become too much to handle and claustrophobic agoraphobia sets in.

Lastly, I guess you might say I celebrate St. Patrick's Day by watching old movies.

And, yes, I know all the words to O Danny Boy, too :D The Andy Williams version, of course.

Thanks for taking the time to read my post. Now we head on over and visit with Brenda Margriet to find out how she celebrates St. Patrick's Day.