Chicago's Mardi Gras

[bitterfig]

St Patrick’s Day has been called Chicago’s Mardi Gras in the worst sense of the term. It’s basically a trashy, touristy drinking binge. While St Patrick’s Day isn’t actually until tomorrow, around here the party started a couple days early. On Saturday I was driving to work at 7:00 a.m. when I spotted my first reveler in gilded green plastic

Comments

[lawless523]

St. Patrick's Day is an excuse to get drunk and party in NY also. That's why I feel a bit nauseated when the committee organizing the St. Patrick's Day parade justifies their prohibiting a contingent of gays and lesbians from marching as such by pointing to the supposedly religious nature of the day and parade. I wish the courts would take judicial notice that this is a complete crock

[gribouille]

Except for having an Irish and proud to be boyfriend, I cannot say I know much about Ireland, but I surely know that there is more than Leprechauns or Guiness. There are Irishmen that don't drink (I'm in love with one !) the same way that there are French people that don't like neither cheese nor wine (I'm one !). So much for the clichés. It's a bit sad that Saint Patrick's Day can be mostly seen as a day when you wear green and get drunk.

I also totally agree with Ireland being full of great music, poetry and storytelling...

[laura_seabrook]

Please see:
http://www.xanga.com/Child_of_the_Earth/577383277/why-pagans-dont-celebrate-st-patricks-day/

[bitterfig]

Thanks for the link, really interesting. I remember on of the more eye-opening books I read when I was a teenager was Barbara Walker's The Women's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets that really showed how so many symbols, names and sacred places of Christianity had actually been taken by force and modified from pagans by Christian conquerors.

[laura_seabrook]

You might also want to check out Cassell's Encyclopedia of Queer Myth, Symbol and Spirit - it shows just how much has also been censored or changed for the general public.

[bitterfig]

That sounds like a really cool book, I'll make a point of checking it out, thanks.