St. Patty's Day

Notable quotables from St. Patrick's Day 2010:

"So before we begin, I just want to clarify something: Please raise your hand if you are actually sober. *majority of people raise hands* Oh, good! More than 85%! That's excellent news." -my English professor (1:00 class) 

"I was a lot drunker when I got to work, but I'm sobering up now. That's what I'm going to go fix." -Random student, (4:00 pm)

"May your blessings outnumber the shamrocks that grow, and may trouble avoid you wherever you go. HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY!! ERIN GO BRAGH!!" -Facebook status of one of my extremely Irish friends. 

St. Patrick's Day is fun. It's just a really fun day to observe on college campuses. I actually didn't get to see much of the night action, although I have a pretty clear indication in my head of what went down. But I enjoyed walking around campus after my classes around 4:00. The campus was exploding with spirit. People were doing Irish jigs in the Diag. People were singing. I saw one dude wearing an Irish flag (and possibly nothing else?) Green was everywhere. The weather was fantastic. There was just an overall cheerful vibe in the atmosphere. I couldn't help smile when I saw people walking around going nuts. I sat on the field of the Diag while people did jigs and thought that this is pretty much an advertisement for "the college experience." It's what people expect from college every day. This lively atmosphere where everyone's happy and dancing and singing. So in that respect, it's really nice to walk around and be part of it. 

But walking around campus doesn't really tell me anything about what the holiday actually means. The best I can grasp from it is what I've learned from my best friend, who is by far the most Irish person I know, and who knows anything and everything about Ireland and Irish culture. It's a huge deal for her household, and they always have corn-beef and cabbage and Irish soda bread, ( I've had the Irish Soda Bread made by her Irish grandmother....knocks Mojo's out of the park, although Mojo's was pretty solid). Before her, I really never paid any attention whatsoever to St. Patrick's Day, because I have no Irish ties at all. But for her, it's a statement of her culture and I think for her and others it transcends what college has made it into, and yet I still don't know exactly what it means for them.  

I think it could go either way in terms of evaluating what it means for college students to celebrate a holiday most of them know very little about. It could be seen as embracing a culture and making it into a community event, or it could be seen as kind of ignorantly making something more meaningful into a day for nothing but drinking. Either way, I think St. Patrick's Day is definitely an interesting 'holiday,' and I really appreciate all the great quotes it provided me with throughout the day.