Happy St. Patrick's Day!

HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY!!!

Best parts about today:

* My students looking at me like I have 3 heads and wondering while I'm all green and bright today. Then, when I wish them a Happy St. Patrick's Day they respond with astonishment, "Ahhh! C'est pour ca!!!" Which basically means means, "Ohhhh! That's why!!!" to which I respond, "Oui! C'est pour ca!!", which basically means, "Yes!! That's why!" hahahaha!

* The way the women on the metro and at the bus stop look at me... like in my bright green I am offending all that is French. (more laughing)

(I think I could probably count the number of people I see each day NOT wearing black or brown... It's a sea of black with a some dark brown slipping in and a handful of people will wear something like red or dark purple. But you could probably count them all and not reach 20 in a day. And I somehow feel like green is a forbidden color because, despite the fact that I wear it regularly, no one else seems to.) :)

* So when I got off the bus and was walking to the metro I saw this guy in a bright green shirt with a shamrock on it with two older adults behind him- most likely his parents. They all spoke English. In passing I wished them a Happy St. Patrick's Day and the older gentleman turned around and said, "Same to you! God Bless Ireland!" to which I replied a relatively tacky, "Woohoo!" instead of the "Amen" that would have probably been more appropriate. That made me smile! I love people! Especially those willing to shout "God Bless" anything over their shoulder through the streets of France.

* I got a St. Paddy's Day 2009 T-shirt from my work!!! (The bar Paddy's Corner... not the lycee/high school... obviously)

* Tonight I'm going to have a quick drink at Paddy's Corner with some friends. There will be live music there, which should be fun. (Unfortunately I have to be up at 5:30 tomorrow morning, so staying out late isn't an option, but it will still be fun.)

HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY EVERYONE!

And now for some fun facts you might not have known:

St. Patrick was actually British.

The Celtic cross was created as St. Patrick superimposed the sun on the cross in order to help the pagan Irish peoples incorporate their beliefs into Catholicism.

The first St. Patrick's Day parade took place not in Ireland, but in the United States. Irish soldiers serving in the English military marched through New York City on March 17, 1762.

In 1848, several New York Irish aid societies decided to unite their parades to form one New York City St. Patrick's Day Parade. Today, that parade is the world 's oldest civilian parade and the largest in the United States, with over 150,000 participants.

In modern-day Ireland, St. Patrick's Day has traditionally been a religious occasion. In fact, up until the 1970s, Irish laws mandated that pubs be closed on March 17. 

The tradition started in 1962, when city pollution-control workers used dyes to trace illegal sewage discharges and realized that the green dye might provide a unique way to celebrate the holiday. That year, they released 100 pounds of green vegetable dye into the river—enough to keep it green for a week!

It has long been recounted that, during his mission in Ireland, St. Patrick once stood on a hilltop (which is now called Croagh Patrick), and with only a wooden staff by his side, banished all the snakes from Ireland.  In fact, the island nation was never home to any snakes. The "banishing of the snakes" was really a metaphor for the eradication of pagan ideology from Ireland and the triumph of Christianity. Within two hundred years of Patrick's arrival, Ireland was completely Christianized.

The Shamrock was used to symbolize the three parts of the Holy Trinity: The Father, Son and Holy Spirt.

Most the trivia was taken from history.com :)