Patrick's Day.

St. Patrick's Day is historically a feast day of recognition for the patron saint of Ireland. It was originally celebrated by the Roman Catholic Church but was adopted by Protestant ones as well. It is now widely secularized and in many societies it is more of a celebration of Irish culture rather than the works and teaching of St. Patrick. St. Patrick's Day is celebrated on March 17 which is the day Saint Patrick is believed to have died.

My thoughts on St. Patrick's Day are similar to my thoughts on many other "holidays" or "recognition" days of this type (Halloween and Valentine's Day coming to mind). Simply put, I just don't really care. I do not hate St. Patrick's Day nor do I love it. Some years I choose to recognize it, most years I don't. To me March 17th will pass like any other Thursday and my lack of St. Patrick's Day celebrations will not incur any great detriment to my life.

The primary reason for this is probably because I am not Irish. If I had Irish heritage or ties to the nation I'm sure that having a day specifically set to celebrate my culture would be kind of neat. While I do love other cultures and all they bring to the table ("table" being the key word here, if there is anything I love about other cultures it is the diverse, lovely and delicious foods made available for me to enjoy) I am not particularly fond of the implied obligation that lands on you whenever one of these "festive" days come about. The reason for my feeling on this stems my general disdain for our society's primary expression of the holiday: feeding into the stereotyped character of the drunk-Irishman by using St. Patrick's Day as an excuse to go to the bar in the middle of the week or to indulge in alcohol throughout the entirety of the day. St. Patrick's Day has become yet another expression of our society's obsession with alcohol-culture and drunkenness (although today I found out that St. Patrick's Day is a public holiday in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, something I didn't know before. Yay for learning things!). Don't get me wrong, I love a drink or two myself and am currently trying to expand my alcoholic-beverage horizons, all the while gearing up to pursue amateur "bar tending" or drink-making during the summer, I am just not fond of feeling obliged to drink and play into the stereotype. Those individuals who use the day to really reflect and celebrate Irish culture (beyond the pub) are the ones who really "get" the "holiday" and thus they recognize it accordingly. 

Another reason why I don't embrace St. Patty's Day fully could be (and probably is) because I'm boring, cynical, and really just feel like I have more important things going on at the moment. I recognize the value St. Patrick's Day celebrations have for some. People love to party, and days of this type offer people (who may or may not have the opportunity to "let loose" often) to go out, dress up, and have fun. They get to be extra-ordinary for a day. I recognize that fact and there is nothing wrong with people wanting to have fun. I am just not fun (I guess). Getting drunk on a Thursday night in the middle of March does not seem very appealing to me: a student with many upcoming deadlines for major assignments as well as many meetings and other extra-curricular obligations that need to be attended to. People who aren't feeling this sort of pressure, or simply don't care that it is there are free to embrace the day in all their green and drunken glory. I really just don't care. 

With major political science and a philosophy papers coming up, and a student council meeting on Friday night I really feel like I will have to skip out on St. Patrick's Day this year. While it would be awesome to get out and have a couple drinks with some good friends, my work schedule just doesn't allow for it. Even if I were to go out, I'd be worrying about the work I was neglecting. Tomorrow I will be at my desk all day, in my pajamas, reading and writing about the politics of humanitarian/militaristic intervention in Libya for one paper and the ways we contemplate, think about and interpret history in reference to the work of philosophers/social critics Simmel, Benjamin, and Kracauer in another. 

Maybe I'll have a beer.

Update:

Well, it seems that no one can accuse me of not getting into the festive spirit completely. I picked up this sugar cookie from Second Cup earlier today specifically because it was St. Patrick's Day themed (my friend also got one, she was the one who brought it to my attention):

It was delicious!