Irish and American cultures are similar in lots of aspects, including the stereotype of drunk adult holidays. Collage Courtesy of reporter Malibu Uzunlar.
The Irish luck, the color green, shamrocks, leprechauns and of course— lots and lots of adults drinking and behaving untoward.
St. Patrick’s Day is a really important and big celebration for Irish people all over the world. But for the Americans who are jumping in on the open tap days of pubs and putting on fake ginger beards, what is the point of celebrating someone else’s cultural traditions?
Historically, the Irish-British army brought the holiday to the American colonies in the late 1700s, when the first St. Patrick’s Day parade was held in New York City. Considering the dominant demographic of Irish immigrants in America, the holiday is very welcome in the United States. Yet some Americans who are celebrating the holiday still do not know the roots or the meaning behind this cheerful holiday.
“In my opinion, people celebrate it only to drink and have a good time. I don’t think there is an actual meaning behind the celebrations in America at this point. In Slovakia, we learn about it in school but almost no one celebrates it,”said Senior Lucia Skoricova.
In 2022, more than half of Americans said that they were going to be celebrating St. Patrick’s Day. Meanwhile, the confirmed Irish descendants in the US make up around 25 percent of the population, leaving a quarter of the country’s residents wondering why they would be celebrating St. Patrick’s day at all.
The holiday is the celebration of St. Patrick arriving to the Emerald Island and introducing Christianity to the nation, and it is overall a celebration of Irish culture. The fact that so many Americans celebrate it, with a large chunk of them not knowing what they are raising their pints to, might be Americanizing and appropriating the holiday that has a lot of meaning to the patriotic masses with Irish blood.
“I think the holiday became a thing in the US because so many Irish immigrants reached the country, but it is still a bit overkill. We don’t celebrate the holiday in Germany,” said sophomore Faye Niven.
Celebrating anything with friends and listening to good music is something that no one wants to miss out on, but appropriating a nationality’s holiday is something that will definitely be offending some people, especially with national heritage and cultures being specifically more protected and appreciated with today’s progressive mindset.
Think about this while avoiding green puke all over Downtown SLO starting tomorrow morning.
source: statista.com
