St. Fratty's Day

I saw more than one status on my facebook news feed yesterday with the above title prominently displayed with all caps and countless exclamation points. St. Patrick's Day is beloved by college students the world over because it provides them with an(other) excuse to be drunk all day. I had a packed schedule on Wednesday, so I didn't get to go out and about too much. Interestingly enough, it was in one of my classes, restricted from the outdoors, that I encountered my best St. Patty's Day story to date. A girl came to my Spanish class drunk. I didn't think people really did that. I mean, I can barely make it to class on insufficient sleep. Going intoxicated seems completely out of the question. But for this girl, it clearly wasn't. When she came in and sat down, one of the guys in my class noticed her green sunglasses and told her to put them on. So she did...sideways. When she took them off, they revealed what can only be described as drunk eyes. She then attempted to talk to our class in Spanish, slurring her words. If you've never heard a drunk person try to speak a foreign language before, I highly recommend it. Our class was in stitches. Mind you, this was all before the professor arrived, luckily for her (although I think it would have been hilarious if he were there; my prof is a pretty cool dude and he often jokes with us about going to the bars). When he walked in, we were all still laughing at the situation, leading to his confusion. He kept asking us why we were laughing, what he missed. Nobody gave him a response, we just kept laughing, so he finally dropped it and put on the movie we were going to be watching. At one point I looked back at my drunken classmate and she appeared to be sleeping. Then, halfway through class, she got up and left the room. And she didn't come back. I guess the film (which was in English) was too much for her to handle in her state.

Beyond that, nothing too exciting came my way on March 17th. Today I did hear someone describing her day, which consisted of visiting about 5 frats and taking a nap all before 7:30 PM when she started her homework. While these experiences have caused me to consider St. Patrick's Day more heavily than I have in the past, they haven't brought me any more clarity. Why does this massive all-day party occur on this particular day? Why has a holiday originating in Ireland become more celebrated in America, in part by people who aren't even Irish? No other holiday that I can think of inspires the same kind of day-long festivity and copious alcohol (the closest comparison to me is a football Saturday). Sure, most college students will take any excuse to get wasted, but why St. Patrick's Day? And what does it mean beyond this setting with which we are all so familiar? I don't know. What I do know is that the weather was wonderful, the beer was green, and the people were happy.