(no subject)

[sophiaserpentia]

So it's Saint Patrick's Day.

No holiday could possibly be less on my radar screen than Saint Patrick's Day. I'm not Irish or Irish-American, and I'm not Catholic, and I don't find the spread of Christianity to Ireland (or anywhere) to be something I want to celebrate.

I'm not wearing a stitch of green, and if any of you try to pinch me (what is the origin of that anyway?) I'll... well I'll... I'll glare at you.

Comments

[cktraveler.livejournal.com]

and if any of you try to pinch me (what is the origin of that anyway?)

Bullying, peer pressure to conform, and pinching being a form of physical abuse that isn't obvious from a distance and thus won't be interrupted by police (for adults) or teachers (for children).

[akaiyume.livejournal.com]

ah... so it is a metaphorical re-enactment of the spread of Christianity.

(yup, I am reserving my spot in hell ;p)

[cktraveler.livejournal.com]

Not at all! Since when has Christianity been shy about proselytizing in the last thousand years?

(I get to reincarnate; no hell for me! woo!)

[queenofhalves]

i always accidentally wear green on st. patrick's day. i never remember what day it is, and i always randomly put on a green shirt. ?!?

[sophiaserpentia.livejournal.com]

I've done that before actually, and I rarely wear green. I barely have any green in my wardrobe, now, though, so little chance I will do it even by accident.

[legolastn.livejournal.com]

Is St. Patrick's Day really about anything other than getting drunk and wearing green anymore? At least in the US?

Anyways, most online sources say the pinching origins are with schoolchildren, but don't go beyond that to explain why. The explanation above makes sense, although it doesn't really explain why there's aren't similar traditions for other holidays (the Easter goose, the Valentine's day bitchslap, etc).

[apis-mellifera.livejournal.com]

Apparently the pinching thing isn't something that happens everywhere. I mentioned it in my LJ today and two separate people, from two different parts of the US had no idea why I was talking about pinching.

[marnanel.livejournal.com]

I want to know if I should get people to pinch me on April 23rd :)

</english>

Slainte

[rhonan.livejournal.com]

If I did pinch you, I'd be getting my arm in the Guinness Book of World Records. Instead, I think I'll just throw my lip over a few pints of Guinness instead.

[akaiyume.livejournal.com]

I am, unfortunately, acutely aware of St. Patrick's day this year. Only because it is the day that would have been my mother's wedding anniversary. Which means she has been depressed. And I should be sympathetic but I am so totally not because she gets the type of depressed where if a person says or does anything in a way different than what she would have said/done it then she reads it as a personal attack and decides that you are just existing to make her miserable you horrible shameless person. ::headdesk:

[azaz-al.livejournal.com]

SO tying you up and throwing green paint on you while pinching you is a hard limit?

Sorry sweety, I'm Irish by heritage - although never Catholic - and I like celebrating it.

[sophiaserpentia.livejournal.com]

All of that would be okay if it weren't for the pinching.

I'm glad this day means something to you.

I love you!

[dragonguyver.livejournal.com]

I definitely have to agree, given as I'm pretty straight-edge (I enjoy caffeine sometimes... sue me! lol) and I don't feel like celebrating a guy who killed like ten thousand druids/pagans.

What do people think it means when it's said that St Patrick "chased the snakes out of Ireland"? You, I can imagine, know exactly what that symbolism meant to him, and what the symbolism means to pagans/druids/gnostics....