The student news site of El Camino College

El Camino College The Union

The student news site of El Camino College

El Camino College The Union

The student news site of El Camino College

El Camino College The Union

Celebrating for a difference purpose

With matching green shirts

and green nail paint, they

hold onto the toilet for their dear lives as they throw up like human equivalents of Niagara Falls.

For some, this is a great St. Patrick’s Day and they simply cannot wait for next year.

Everyone in the country looked forward to yesterday’s holiday because they got to drink (and drink some more), but not everyone knows exactly why St. Patrick is remembered every year.

Everything changed in Patrick’s life when he was kidnapped and sold as a slave by Irish marauders. During the time he was captured, he became closer to God.

Anthropology professor, Blair Gibson, who received his master’s degree in archaeology in Ireland, said the Irish celebrate St. Patrick’s Day because Patrick converted Celtic (Druid) Ireland to Christianity.

Gibson also said that St. Patrick’s Day is celebrated very differently in Ireland..

“St. Patrick is the patron saint of Ireland,” Gibson said. “So it is a national holiday, but it is celebrated there like Veteran’s Day or Labor Day.”

Gibson said that what he remembers the most are the parades, marching bands in Dublin and the bagpipe players.

“The Irish do not think that it is a day of drinking alcohol,” Gibson said.

They do not celebrate the day by wearing green or doing anything that requires the color green, he said.

“They look down and make fun of the Americans by saying ‘Oh you Americans, you paint your face green, you drink green beer, you put green dye in the river,'” Gibson said.about the differences.

The reason for wearing green is due to the fact that Ireland is filled with green.

“Green, even by the Irish, is held to be symbolic of Ireland,” Gibson said. “There is an old saying ‘The forty shades of green of Ireland,’ and in a way it is a national (representative) color of Ireland.”

Gibson said that in America the color green became embraced as a way of unifying or celebrating Irish ethnicity.

“The idea is to come up with a symbol which strongly represents other people from Ireland, aside from the shamrock and the harp,” Gibson said.

One of the American traditions that Gibson said he does not know about is pinching people who fail to wear green on this day.

“The Irish would be horrified if they went around and pinched each other. There is no pinching tradition in Ireland.”

Lana McCarthy, 24, psychology major, said she does not celebrate it.

“I’m sure St. Patrick would be rolling in his grave if he knew that drunken buffoons were throwing up green beer in his name once a year. I know they only use the holiday as an excuse in Ireland,” Gibson said.

Gibson said in Ireland their dish is bacon and cabbage.

“The Irish are pork -oriented,” he said. “If you go to Ireland and ask for corned beef, you would get blank stares,” McCarthy said.

McCarthy used to eat corned beef and cabbage with her mother to celebrate.

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