St. Patrick's Day, or there's more to Ireland than Green Beer and Leprechauns.

Growing up, my best friend's birthday was on March 17th. This meant little to me until I hit high school and realized that there was the coinciding day of St. Patrick where everyone in the world seemed to get shitfaced. Frankly, he thought it was great cause there'd be no way he'd be singled out for drinking in the middle of the week. As I got older though, I realized how utterly stupid it is for a nation's most important day (in Ireland it's a National Holiday and actually means more than green beer, shamrock shakes and puking on a leprechaun) to be an excuse for everyone to get fucked up. If anything, I take St. Patrick's Day as an excuse to play the Dropkick Murphys and the Pogues really loud. Sure they may sound great drunk, but that doesn't mean I get in touch with my inner Irishman today. I could if I wanted, as I my grandmother's grandmother was Irish (which would make me 6.25% Irish, assuming she was full blooded Irish and not just Irish-American) but that's another point. I see people from almost every walk of life and group getting in on the shenanigans, but if you asked them who St. Patrick was and what he did they'd probably say something stupid like "he invented Green Beer". It seems to be the only time it happens, as I don't see people going apeshit and having haggis and getting drunk on St. Andrew's Day for being Scottish (though I could do that as I'm about 50% Scotish) and I've not yet been invited to a Jamaican Independence Day party for Jamaican Patties and a fat blunt, nor do most people I know have 4th of July parties (in this country at least). So it begs the question: Why do so many people want to identify with the Irish on their national day? Instead of being a celebration of Ireland and the Irish culture, it seems to be making a mockery of the Irish and everyone gets to act out whatever stereotypical caricature they think the Irish are. Green and Beer and Shamrocks and talking about Leprechauns and Lucky Charms.
Here's an idea, if you're so gung ho on the Irish culture (which I doubt the majority of revelers are) then how about trying to actually LEARN about it, or go meet some actual Irish people and ask what it means to them. God forbid you might actually learn something about another culture instead of just reinforcing negative stereotypes and belittling a culture.

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