Who are you St. Paddy?

How widespread is the celebration of St. Patrick's Day? One of my coworkers from California has been looking forward to this day for over a week while an Egyptian coworker was clueless that this was a thing celebrated in the US. Oddly enough, the Egyptian was familiar with the Dropkicks while miss California was not.

According to wikipedia, the highest of resources, St. Patrick's Day is on the death of St. Patrick and celebrates Christianity coming to Ireland as well as "celebrates the heritage and culture of the Irish in general." Where is the day for the French Canadians? Apparently, the lenten restrictions on eating and drinking were traditionally lifted on this day - thus why everyone gets hammered. Perhaps this is why it is celebrated in more countries than any other national festival including Argentina, Australia, and New Zealand. The whole thing about the snakes isn't true as I guess Ireland really doesn't have many but is a metaphor for him converting people to Christianity and driving inconvertible druids out of the country. Hey, I think I write a better summary that wiki btw.

Nowadays, it is said Irish-Americans are the most feverish of this "holy day" although I'm not sure wearing "Kiss me, I'm Irish" t-shirts and downing beer and whiskey is the most religious of practices but hey, it's hard not to join in with a drunken merry group that proclaims that everyone is Irish on St. Paddy's. Reading on, Ireland and Great Britain have a public holiday and fancy parades. When it goes on to talk about American celebrations wiki literally has three sentences:

"St Patrick's Day, while not a legal holiday in the United States, is nonetheless widely recognised and observed throughout the country as a celebration of Irish and Irish-American culture. Celebrations include prominent displays of the colour green, religious observances, numerous parades, and copious consumption of alcohol. The holiday has been celebrated in North America since the late 18th century."

Canada however seems to be as legit as Britain and the motherland, Ireland, with Montreal leading the pack. Fun fact: The Toronto Maple Leaves used to be the Toronto St. Patricks and had green Jerseys! So maybe, just maybe, there is some mix of French Canadian and Irish blood and I really do have some Irish in me! Alanna, Nina, and Pat, I am one of you too!

I also have to include the wiki section about how people in space celebrate. Yes, that's right, Space St. Paddys:

"Astronauts on board the International Space Station have celebrated the festival in different ways. Irish-American Catherine Coleman played a hundred-year-old flute belonging to Matt Molloy and a tin whistle belonging to Paddy Moloney, both members of the Irish music group The Chieftains, while floating weightless in the space station on Saint Patrick's Day in 2011. Her performance was later included in a track called "The Chieftains in Orbit" on the group's album, Voice of Ages.

Chris Hadfield took photographs of Ireland from earth orbit, and a picture of himself wearing green clothing in the space station, and posted them online on Saint Patrick's Day in 2013. He also posted online a recording of himself singing "Danny Boy" in space."

No matter where we celebrate, it is a day to blast the Pogues, talk in horrible Irish accents, and wish we were partying with Michael Fassbender [and party in the best sense of party ;)]. Oh yeah, and wear green. So despite being in retreat on Friday into Saturday morning, maybe I'll find a moment to down a few car bombs and quote the dropkicks to a half decent looking man "kiss me, I'm shit faced."

So happy Irish day y'all, well, two days early.