#509. A tenuous relationship with St. Patrick’s Day.
Mar 17th by JonMy younger brother Will doesn’t mess around when it comes to pursuing his passions. When he got into pipes, he didn’t just buy a pipe and a coat with tweed patches on the elbows. He learned how to carve pipes and spent time in the hills of Italy digging up briar with a master craftsman renown in the art. When he got interested in the acoustic guitar I sucked at he didn’t just take a few lessons, he started a band, played the Apollo Theater and opened for Wilco. I love him for that and am constantly inspired by his unrelenting pursuit of the things he cares about.
Except when he turned that laser focus toward herpetology. (Wow, I spelled that word right the first time. I’ve never in my life spelled “potential” right the first time, but apparently I can bust out herpetology all day long. I digress.)
Herpetology, from the Greek word herpeton, which means “creeping animal,” (how scary is that) is defined as “the study of amphibians and reptiles.” Another way to define it is:
“Wow, we sure do have a lot of snakes in our house. How come they keep escaping from their tanks? Is it weird that you can order a rattlesnake from a catalog? Can you really call an animal that occasionally enjoys biting you in the neck a ‘pet?’”
Granted, my version is a little longer, but it’s definitely an accurate definition of life at my house when my brother started collecting and eventually breeding snakes. I don’t hate snakes. I think they’re fascinating and beautiful when I see them in someone else’s yard or behind glass. But when one is lose inside the walls of your house, growing perhaps grumpy and more powerful, that tends to change your opinion of them. Which is why when I heard that St. Patrick is best known for banishing all snakes from Ireland, I applauded his efforts.
I am admittedly not a great student of the Saints, but to my awareness, none of the others banished any sort of animal from another country. I thought maybe that St. Polycarp had something to do with carps. I mean that’s a pretty easy mistake to make, but according to the Internets, nope, no carp in his background.
Then, much to my dismay, on the very same Google search, I found out that St. Patrick didn’t have anything to do with snakes. I’m not sure if Ireland is still serpent infested, but that whole snake thing is a myth. And at this point, as Atlanta gears up to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day with events like “Kegs & Eggs” and green beer-a-thons, it feels like March 17th was officially purchased by Guinness. (If they’d like to buy Booty, God, Booty day from me, that’s for sale. I’ll make up some tale about me eradicating all the squirrels from Georgia using trained platypuses or platypi.)
So I’m not sure if as Christians we’re supposed to be officially down with Saint Patrick’s Day or indifferent or something in between. Should I be wearing a green sweater today or give St. Patrick the same level of thought I currently give St. Polycarp? Which I confess on an average day isn’t a whole lot.
Can we get a ruling on this one?
Are you celebrating St. Patrick’s Day today?
Comments
So…a little ditty of info on St. Patrick. He was known as a Christian missionary in Ireland. When he was 16 he was taken, by Irish raiders, from his home of Wales and held captive, as a slave in Ireland for 6 years. He eventually escaped and went back to Wales, only to later return to Ireland as a missionary.
So… given all that, I’d say we Christians should be gettin’ down with ole’ St. Pat.
Guinness anyone?
OK, I’m not going to “pimp my blog” so to speak, but St. Patrick was a true servant of God, indeed. I wrote a little about him in my last post.
My kids make leprechaun traps every year. The leprechauns always leave “Leprechaun dust” which is actually pistachio pudding. They turn our milk green. The kids wear green to school. My preschooler and I made shamrock shaped cookies this morning. We just have fun with it.
I’m always torn. I like green and I like beer. But I don’t like leprechauns. They freak me out a little. And pinching…that’s assault in Texas, so you don’t want to do that. See? See why I’m torn?
Yes and yes.
I love St. Patty’s!
Celebrate St. Patrick’s Day like he would have! Convert a pagan to Christianity.
Patrick returned to the country where he was once a slave to preach the gospel. Within a generation the slave trade and human sacrifice were abolished. I love St. Patrick.
Also, everyone should read “How the Irish Saved Civilization” by Thomas Cahill. It’s fantastic!
Most holidays don’t phase me but here’s a good article on Patrick by Driscoll: http://theresurgence.com/Vintage_Saints_Saint_Patrick_Part_1
I’m sitting in a coffee shop shamelessly wearing shamrock ears on a headband that Sherri of “Matter of Fact” gave me for winning the Limerick contest at her blog.
I feel kinda stupid.
Funny post. I was laughing, and enjoying this portion of my celebration of St. Patty’s day celebrations.
I definitely AM since it’s my husband’s birthday!
Maybe that’s not the most spiritual reason, but I am pretty sure God is celebrating with us;-)
Jon you are so tangent. You go way over there (sounds like thar), then you go back over the other direction, then suddenly you bring it together. I describe SCL as anti-hypocritical, anti-traditional,
Some tips:
1. I would think if I was a designated Saint I would really be angry for anyone that used my day for an excuse to get drunk. Instead I would want it be a day that you made someone laugh out loud, preferably with a liquid substance coming out of their nose. Yea, I would not want to be a day of drunkenness, but a day of laughter.
2. When someone asks if you are wearing green (their excuse for pinching you), always say yes & when they ask where, boldly state “my underwear”. If they question your statement threaten to show them. This only works if you are not a teen & responding to a teen. Be very concerned if the answer is anything but “EEEEEEEWWWWWW”.
3. Anything you can do to make a teen or child say eeeeeeeeewwwwwwww is a great accomplishment.
4. Green eggs do not come from green die, but from purple jelly mixing with scrambled eggs.
5. Yes Polycrap a new word for “Much BS”. Or as spoken in KJV Bovine Dung. PS I really am good at it. I have several sermonettes on dung if anyone is interested?
6. In my opinion cabbage should only be fed to ostriches & pigs the Bible does not have nice things to say about either. I think about as much for cabbage, (except it has a really cool texture.)
7. Thanks Jon for killing a really cool driving snakes out story. Thanks Big Swinging Mickey & ThatKindaGirl for your information.
WV: jawffi
place where taffi gets stuck
Actually, St. Columba is reputed to have banished the Loch Ness monster back to the loch after he had been terrorizing the countryside.
If celebrating means staying up all night, going downtown and getting drunk off green beer, dancing the night away with some guy I don’t even know–which is the way most people will celebrate–than, no, I’m not celebrating. If celebrating means I’m wearing green today, just for fun, than, yes, I am celebrating… –Anna
Yep, I’m celebrating. But that’s because 1) I’m Irish, 2) I got engaged on St. Patrick’s Day three years ago, 3) My husband and I met in Ireland, and 4) We got married in Ireland.
So yeah, I’m down with St. Patrick and all his Irish ways. But I get that it might not be for everyone.
I always celebrate St. Patrick’s Day.
It’s my parents anniversary.
And today just so happens to be their 30th!
I’ll put on a green shirt.
It seems like if you hate All Hallow’s Eve or All Saints Day, you can’t not hate any one saint’s day.
Today is my youngest child’s 6th birthday so we celebrate that and we all wear green. And I got her a shamrock necklace from the dollar store and a St Patty’s t shirt from Old Navy
Leslie.
But aren’t protestants supposed to wear orange on St. Patrick’s Day? There was a guy in our church growing up that always insisted we should wear orange, since we were protestants. Or is that just in Northern Ireland?
I’m on a college campus, and so there is quite a bit of celebration going on around me (some of the hard cores went to kegs and eggs this morning and came to class smelling like the inside of a whiskey bottle). I too will be celebrating with some of the girls on my floor. We are all wearing green and will be watching The Boondock Saints tonight. I’m pretty pumped.
Thanks for giving the new perspective on the holiday.
I feel like St. Patrick’s Day is for people who wish they were Irish. I AM Irish, so I let the others enjoy the day pretending.
Yes, I’m celebrating St. Patrick. You can too:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TCB5QhHVJA
I am of Scotch/Irish descent and I adore St Patty’s Day.
I’m sure in your research you saw that he evangelized to Ireland after being taken there as a servant.
So I proudly celebrate a saint that told the world about Jesus!
I have a friend who is studying herpetology at school. He started the Herpetological Society too. Whenever I see him, I say, rather loudly, “Hey Peter, how are your herpes?”
There are no snakes in Ireland.
I’m wearing green, eating corned beef, and pinched my hubby on his way out the door!
Ugh. I have a moms bible study to go to every Tuesday and I wore my favorite green sweater last Tuesday. Guess I won’t be celebrating.
we had a HUGE st pat’s celebration at my high school today. everybody brings in food and we have thie big lunch with everybody outside on the blacktop. this year we even had a few of the girls do some irish dancing and then had an irish contest. twas very fun.
oh….and snakes can’t live in ireland because the soil is too acidic.
wv: resses- the typo on thousands of Reeses Peanut Butter Cups labels printed in 2003.
Yeah, Jon…
Here’s my ruling: GINGKO BILOBA! Seven paragraphs before you get to St. Patrick’s Day? (just saying…)
Also, this just in. Actual unretouched photo of Jon Acuff last St. Patrick’s Day:
right here
kat,
The lack of skittles makes me suspect that this picture might be slightly retouched, but not much.
Jon, if the writing career doesn’t work out you can always go back to your job a a PI hunting for clues.
Oh dear, I think I have a crush on your brother… :0
I’m off the hook because the tshirt I wear to work with my jeans every day is green! But I don’t think people here in mid-GA care much, anyway. I used to hate getting pinched in school…
For me, St. Patrick’s Day was my Mom’s Birthday. She was the focus of the day. She passed in August, so there wont be any green birthday cakes this year. So as a suggestion, celebrate the day by calling your own Mom.
Your confusion between platypuses or platypi made my day. Thank you.
My family was Protestant Irish in the Catholic part of Ireland. In other words, born trouble makers. My Dad always wore orange that day. I keep with that tradition. It is a Catholic holiday after all.
And what’s with corned beef and cabbage? There is no corned beef in Ireland!! That actually a New York thing.
I’m an elementary school teacher, so I have to green on St. Patrick’s Day. It’s like a unwritten rule somewhere. I also made cupcakes with green frosting that “magically” appeared in their cubbies at the end of the day (supposedly a leprechaun put them there.
).
Ehh, I wore green today. Other than that, I don’t have time for the drinking since I had to work today and tomorrow.
Hey Anon,
Corned beef and cabbage isn’t Irish, but it is Irish-American and widely eaten by folks of Irish descent (and others celebrating) on St. Patrick’s day.
I blogged about clovers, made corned beef and cabbage for dinner, I’m wearing a green shirt, and my son has Flogging Molly blasting in the background. Yeah, we’re celebrating!
St. Patrick was a Welsh missionary who brought the Gospel to the Irish. that’s why the Catholics decided he deserves a feast day. (although a feast day during Lent is sort of silly, i think)
Saint Patrick is an important saint in Christian history for any culture, and he deserves a higher profile with all Christians. His Confession is really fascinating and fresh reading despite it having been written 1500 years ago. The cultural detritus which has accumulated around the memorial of his date of death/entrance into the eternal life is almost as unfortunate as Rudolph and present-grabbing extravaganzas surrounding the commemoration of the Word made Flesh.
As for green beer–I was raised in a tee-total Protestant household that celebrated the day with green clothing and Irish stew. You don’t have to be vulgar unless you want to.
You gotta check out the St. Patrick’s day video that VeggieTales has done. It’s a little segment on “Sumo of the Opera”
We watched it on Tuesday and learned all about St. Patrick. Now my daughter says, ‘I know about him, he told people in Ireland about God. He says that God is like a shamrock, three but still one.’ Yeah, she’s 4. Gotta love VeggieTales for introducing complex theological issues to kids!
Wow, i’m so surprised that Heather is the only one to mention orange being the color worn by Protestants on St. Patrick’s day. I personally always forgot the holiday was arriving until I had already dressed, but is this orange thing well known???
Well beside that particular day and that hullabaloo about snakes, I would of course celebrate the day for general silliness of everybody kissing me on the cheek because yea I have relatives over on the emerald isle and its my birthday, but also because the "snakes he drove out" were a metaphor for the unlearned, un welcomed pagan masses that he brought to Christ's love.