<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" http-equiv=Content-Type>
<META content="MSHTML 5.00.2919.6307" name=GENERATOR></HEAD>
<BODY bottomMargin=0 leftMargin=3 rightMargin=3 topMargin=0>
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV>On Mon, 14 Mar 2005 22:18:49 -0330 <A
href="mailto:gcfl-discuss@gcfl.net">gcfl-discuss@gcfl.net</A> writes:<BR></DIV>
<DIV>> I'm wondering how St. Patty's Day became an excuse for people to get
<BR>> ridiculously drunk and for banks to take a day off. How does that
<BR>> possible celebrate what Patrick did for the Irish people?<BR>>
<BR>> Now, I live in an area with much Irish influence. St. Patrick's Day
<BR>> is pretty big here, but the only things that happen are the
wearing of <BR>> green, possibly speaking in an Irish accent on occasion
throughout the day, <BR>> banks being closed on Monday, and copious
quantities of alcohol <BR>> consumption.<BR>> <BR>> ~Quama</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#ff0000>EVERY holiday in Ireland is an excuse to get
ridiculously drunk, because that is part of the national culture. One of the
great social conflicts in American history was between Protestant reformers who
wanted to ban consumption of alcohol, and predominantly Catholic populations
(German as well as Irish) who wanted to drink. In all truth, millions of
Protestants like to drink also. But drinking IS a very Irish thing to do. The
word "whiskey" was originally "uisge beatha" in Gaelic: it means "water of
life." (Uisge actually means "water.")</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#ff0000></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#ff0000>I had a chemistry teacher in high school who celebrated
St. Patrick's day by telling stories about his grandfather who emigrated from
the small Irish village of Dusseldorf. (In our area, almost everyone was of
German descent. A small town was described as one Catholic church, one Lutheran
church, and six bars.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#ff0000></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#ff0000>Siarlys<BR></DIV></FONT></BODY></HTML>