St Patrick's day weekend

[Grandma Helen]

Does anyone have plans for St Patrick's day weekend?  I'm not much of a party girl anymore, but I don't remember St Patrick's day being a whole weekend event.  I live in the heart of downtown Bel Air and just went for a walk.  There are 5 bars within less than half a mile, including the one behind my apartment that is taking over the whole shopping center.  I can hear the music already.  The cat and mouse games with the cops should be underway shortly!!  Does anyone else see St Patrick's day a whole weekend celebration?

[mercerquietman]

I was a green beer drinker back in the day. Hmm, that can be taken two ways; I was a drinker of green beer in back in the day. Planning on some corned beef and cabbage Sunday accompanied with regular beer, no dyes. I am irish, but my carousing is sort of behind me...sort of.

[Kim]

I never in my ENTIRE life even RECOGNIZED St. Patrick's Day, let alone celebrated it until LAST year. My boyfriend and I and a bunch of his friends had a table set up to watch the Parade (the 2nd largest next to New York City, I've heard tell.) as we drank spiked iced tea and had all kinds of food. It was fun and we took the bus to and from downtown. We considered doing it THIS year but he said he did it 2 years in a row and it was plenty. Fine with ME!

There is a big party at his neighborhood restaurant/bar where the customers are the same every weekend. There will be some Irish music and  bagpipers and lots of food. Everyone comments on my hair because its so crazy curly all the time so I have decided to freak everyone out by wearing a GREEN curly wig I found at a store today....LOL!!

[Kim]

Well...thats what we drank DURING the parde. Iced tea and vanilla vodka. Afterwards we drank beer at Irish pubs. By 2, we were back home and crashed out on the couch....lol. Im not a big drinker usually....more like the occassionl social drinker but it was actually fun, especially since i NEVER allow myself to get so drunk i dont remember things and so i watched everyone else get stupid and goofy! Lol!

[Eaglewoman]

Our PT cruisers club is going to be in the St Pats parade in Denver and will later meet for lunch.Otherwise not much else here, but it does turn into an all day affair down town, green beer and all.

[RavenDelcor]

First off, and always, St. Patrick's day is a religious feast day of the Patron Saint of Ireland. While I was in college on the edge of Cleveland Ohio, I noticed that it was celebrated as a day of drinking and mock-Irish-people went around for a day trying to be Irish. They were Italian, Slaves, Croats, Germans ... everything but Irish. I made a pledge that year, my first year in college, not to join in with them. I told them all, that anyone could get drunk and pretend to be Irish for a day, but that I was Irish forever, and need not prove it with a drink.

As a child we had green mashed potatoes sometimes and even green milk. My mother was going to make an Irish stew one year, and my dad warned her not to use carrots, because they were orange, reminiscent of the Orange Men who were the oppressors of Irish freedoms.

I make a brisket with cabbage and red potatoes and onions (perhaps a leek this year).

The major blessing of St. Patrick is to hold dear all that you love and the dearest is God for it is God who gave us our loved ones. The ease of the road meeting one's feet, makes travel on this earth more fluid and wonderful. The Irish blessing alludes to an easy life and a blessed death where, "May you be in Heaven an Hour before the Devil knows you're dead." is the keenest of Irish blessing and wit.

May all of us, no matter how we celebrate St. Patrick, love well in kindness and truth.

[RavenDelcor]

The Wearin' o the Green

O Paddy dear, and did ye hear the news that's goin' round?
The shamrock is by law forbid to grow on Irish ground!
No more Saint Patrick's Day we'll keep, his color can't be seen
For there's a cruel law ag'in the Wearin' o' the Green."
I met with Napper Tandy, and he took me by the hand
And he said, "How's poor old Ireland, and how does she stand?"
"She's the most distressful country that ever yet was seen
For they're hanging men and women there for the Wearin' o' the Green."

"So if the color we must wear be England's cruel red
Let it remind us of the blood that Irishmen have shed
And pull the shamrock from your hat, and throw it on the sod
But never fear, 'twill take root there, though underfoot 'tis trod.

When laws can stop the blades of grass from growin' as they grow
And when the leaves in summer-time their color dare not show
Then I will change the color too I wear in my caubeen
But till that day, please God, I'll stick to the Wearin' o' the Green.

It's about Irish freedom and British oppression, and Irish stubborness as well.

[carol machulski]

In NYC it started friday and our parade was yesterday. I'm sure the pubs and restaurants will still be Irish-themed today. 

[Eaglewoman]

We had 200,000 people to watch the parade. "The heat Is On" program started fri night and will go thru tonight.(drunken drivers)