An Americanized Irish Holiday: St. Patrick’s Day
When someone mentions the Irish holiday of St. Patrick’s Day, many images come to mind, such as shamrocks, the color green, leprechauns, Guinness, corned beef and cabbage. But how many of these things came directly from the motherland and how many of these “Irish mores” are really just American traditions? Have we lost something in all the parades, pub crawls and festivals? Perhaps the real meaning has more to do with St Patrick and early Christianity than with these festivities we partake of today.
Some people are annoyed at how the Irish holiday becomes a tourist-type attraction that has little to do with Ireland and its rich cultural traditions. “The corned beef and cabbage thing makes me laugh,” says Yvonne Ivory, a Dublin native who lectures at San Diego State University. “Other things annoy me,” she adds, saying that the Blarney Stone is something reserved for tourists only. “The myth is if you kiss the Blarney stone you become eloquent. I’ve never heard of Irish people kissing the Blarney stone. And I’ve never seen green beer in Ireland.”
Today, the Irish holiday becomes a celebration of what it means to be Irish, but people tend to celebrate in different ways. During the Irish famine of 1845-1850, over 1 million people died of starvation and disease, while hundreds of thousands of others emigrated to communities around the world, including the United States. Unfortunately, the Irish did not receive a warm welcome in America, land of the free. “They had these signs: ‘No Irish Need Apply’” explains Jim Farrelly, an Irish professor at the University of Dayton in Ohio. At first, the Irish would just take any job they could get, but over the years, their communities thrived and they became more economically secure. As a result, Saint Patrick’s Day became “a day in which they celebrated their Irish-ness, and also their success and their American-ness,” explains Ninian Mellamphy, a professor at the University of Western Ontario.
As the Irish became more successful in America, other successful immigrant groups, such as the Polish, the Italian, the Ukrainian and the Latinos could all celebrate their similar experiences. Irish-Americans wanted to bring over pieces of the traditional Irish way of life for their Irish holiday, but they also wanted to celebrate their new success. Corned beef replaced bacon, ham or lamb. They took St. Patrick’s shamrock “Holy Trinity” metaphor and made four leaf clovers a symbol of good luck. They took the Gaelic tradition of fairies and devised the leprechaun. Sometimes Irish-Americans get a tough rap, but the Irish truly assimilated into American culture, while still retaining their Irish traditions.
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