Wearing the green

Gordon Clay here wishing you a happy St. Patrick's Day. Are you wearing the green?

St. Patrick's Day, like Christmas, used to be a very spiritual time. Now Christmas is a time basically when retail establishments either go into the red for the year or go into the black. It is evident how it has lost its significance. The only nativity scene in Brookings was in the public park. There was the Star of Bethlehem hanging over the old weigh station near the Chetco river, but not one single Christian Church had the nativity scene in front of their church.

St. Patrick's Day has fallen even further from religious significance. It was named after Saint Patrick. He is said to have used the shamrock, a three-leaved plant, to explain the Holy Trinity to Irish pagans.

Green ribbons and shamrocks were worn in celebration of St Patrick's Day when it became a Catholic holiday and an official feast day in the early 17th century.

It has gradually become more of a secular celebration of Ireland's culture. Today, it is one of the leading days for consumption of alcohol in the United States, and is typically one of the busiest days of the year for bars and restaurants. Many people, regardless of ethnic background, wear green clothing and items. Traditionally, those who are caught not wearing green are pinched affectionately.

I worked in Chicago in the mid-60s, where they die the otherwise merky Chicago River in downtown, green. Saint Patrick's Day is widely celebrated in America by Irish and non-Irish alike and there, St. Patricks Day was known as amateur night. I'm not Irish and I admit hugging the porcelon throne on my first St. Patrick's Day in Chicago. "Wearing the green" sure took on a different meaning for me back then.