Everybody loves to go out and celebrate different things. Your friend gets a promotion? Go out! You passed your final exam? Go out! If there’s a reason to go out with your friends and share some good times, most people take it. St. Patrick’s Day is one of those holidays that people love to go out and party. You and your friends dress all in green and eat lots of green colored food. I know sometimes this may feel hypocritical if you’re not Irish, but here’s a fun fact: it’s not. The extreme holiday traditions we hold here in the United States actually started in the U.S. People in Ireland don’t necessarily celebrate like we do here, and that’s okay.
Being an Italian/German woman in the U.S., I don’t have any fun holidays. My family has traditions, but we don’t have any holidays to celebrate our heritage. Funny thing is, my maternal grandparents are 100% italian, yet they met on St. Patrick’s Day. Everybody was wearing green, yet my grandmother was wearing all red! Now I know where I got my boldness from.
All the Irish people I know are very kind, and they gladly let me use their holiday to spend time with my friends and family. I like to celebrate St.Patrick’s Day by attending multiple parades and wearing green! I have a shirt that says, “Kiss Me I’m Pretending To Be Irish”… I haven’t gotten a kiss yet on St. Patty’s Day, so you’ll have to find me on social media if you want an update about St. Patrick’s Day 2020 when I wear the shirt again.
Here’s a fun story about celebrating St. Patrick’s Day when the person wasn’t even Irish
I dated a guy my sophomore year who loved to celebrate all the holidays. Cinco de Mayo we ate all kinds of Spanish food, Halloween his family threw a party, etc. March 17th of that year was his junior prom, and I was super excited. I didn’t pick out a green dress but I wore green that day to school to give some kudos to the fun holiday. That morning I sat with my friends and saw something that made my heart stop: my boyfriend had spray painted his blonde hair ALL green, as he rocked a green shirt. He walked up to me with a big smile, “Happy Saint Patrick’s Day!” I touched his hair and laughed very nervously. I asked if it would come out for that night and he shrugged and said he hoped so. Even though it was super funny, I couldn’t help but wonder if I’d be attending junior prom with a real life leprechaun. That evening, I showed up at his house and saw his whole family in green clothes with some holiday accessories. Luckily, his hair was back to normal and his suit had nothing to do with the holiday. Phew!
That guy and I ended up breaking up but we are SUPER great friends and he still takes me and his friends to celebrate all the holidays, including Saint Patrick’s Day. Even though none of us are Irish, we still love to hangout and celebrate Ireland in our green apparel. Since I know how much fun I have on this day, I sure hope all of you celebrate and enjoy yourselves, too.