Kiss my ARSE, St. Pat

You won't find any shamrock cupcakes or construction paper Leprechaun hats or rainbow plushies over here on MountainPulse today. Inspirationally, it's been a slow few days and I've been having a bit of the withdrawals from all the wonderful crafty colloquiums out there because so many people are enmeshed in the whole St. Patrick's Day thing and I won't be a part of it. There's no celebration here.

I won't celebrate the decimation and destruction of other's cultures and I won't celebrate some superficial facet of the holiday of another religion as my own. Learning about and respecting another religion's holiday with my children is one thing...
But you wouldn't find me celebrating Ramadan...Just because it's Ramadan time.

St. Patrick did not "drive the snakes from Ireland" (naturalists are convinced that larger reptiles were never part of the fauna of the Emerald Isle...and that includes no snakes BEFORE St. Patrick's time either!) St. Patrick played a part in culturecide and murder. Like so many other cultures and earth/nature based religions that have been destroyed in the name of Christianity. I dig Jesus. Jesus would roll over in his tomb with all this malarkey.

According to the legend, St. Patrick stamped his staff on the ground to rid the snakes out of Ireland. The snakes that were "sent from the island" were the Druids, medicine women, shaman and pagan population- people who lived in harmony with nature. At first, his methods were insidious. Luring in and gaining the respect of pagans, utilizing their symbols and tools to weave their beliefs into Christianity. Bon fires were lit in false respect for their fire gods. The shamrock, symbolic of the Triple Goddess, became the Father, Son and Holy Ghost. A circle, representing the sun, was incorporated into the Christian cross. But the Christian Church taught its missionaries that if they could not convert any natives, they were to use any means necessary to convert the nonbelievers. The Druids refused to relinquish their beliefs and convert to Christianity. St. Patrick realized if he could eradicate the symbol of the oroborus(a snake eating it's own tail) -often worn or tattooed on a druid's body- he could take away their power and leadership ability. So the snakes we're removed by force. He whacked the tattoos -placed on whole chunks of skin, or limbs-off their bodies, branded them off, and/or took their trinkets. For their own good, of course. St. Patrick is said to have incited the murders of almost eight hundred Druid priests and priestesses. He destroyed all of their records.
Another culture lost to the crucible of Christianity.

For those who are Catholic, this is your day. A religious observance of a Catholic Saint, his death and what is viewed as his accomplishments: thirty years of converting pagans to Christianity and building and setting up monasteries and places of worship all around Ireland. Traditionally a holy day in Ireland, spent eating a feast with family and worshiping in church, it has been hijacked and turned into a boozefest. A capitalistic wet dream like so many other holidays. An excuse for non-Irish and/or non-Christians to get busy wearing green and being drunk at 9am. The Wearin' of the Green and the Brownin' of the Shorts. Another example of disrespecting other cultures. Do we honor the Irish by getting falling-down drunk? !!? Isn't it a mockery of a culture who may have a propensity toward alcoholism? There are studies indicating that there is a genetic predisposition to alcoholism in the Irish:

Genomewide linkage study in the Irish affected sib pair study of alcohol dependence: evidence for a susceptibility region for symptoms of alcohol dependence on chromosome 4 Alcoholism is a relatively common, chronic, disabling and often treatment-resistant disorder. Evidence from twin and adoption studies indicates a substantial genetic influence, with heritability estimates of 50-60%. We conducted a genome scan in the Irish Affected Sib Pair Study of Alcohol Dependence (IASPSAD).

St. Patrick's Day is without question the biggest celebration of a national day across the globe. In big American cities, in Moscow's Red Square, in Montserrat (the only place besides Ireland to declare 17th March a full public holiday) and even in Nigeria, people bedecked in green will be proclaiming themselves Irish for the day. St. Patrick's Day has traditionally been celebrated with more fanfare abroad than in Ireland. I'm sorry....but, What the fuck?!?!?

Celebrating my Irish heritage as well as Celtic spirituality on this day is not outside my realm of interest. I've thought of "rebelling" and taking this day back. By reliving the long-lost traditions of the Celts, telling stories, serving a feast, and discussing history, theology, spirituality...
I admit haven't given it a lot of thought, and I probably should. How to incorporate a pre-Chistian celebration on this day? How to distinguish it from and the hullabaloo that goes on today, for my children's sake? I should plan to have something more concrete for next year, but there is still time today for us to make this wreath of the banished serpents!