What are we celebrating?

 

Personally, as a college student I don’t necessarily need a holiday in order to drink on a Monday night. Being only 1/8 Irish, I myself don’t really find any reason to celebrate Saint Patrick’s Day. After all, in 20 years of living I’ve gathered that it is only a holiday to celebrate the color green, binge drinking, and, of course, one’s Irish heritage. But it seems that you don’t even really need to be Irish at all to drink all day and night. So what are we celebrating anyhow?

Well, apparently for Bostonians there is at least one reason for a legitimate celebration on March 17th: “Evacuation Day.” As a piece on Boston.com today says:

Long before green beer and fake Irish brogues, March 17 has meant something in South Boston. It was the day in 1776 when the Continental Army sneaked 50 cannons up Dorchester Heights and chased the Red Coats out of Boston without a fight.

That’s cool. I can get into that. However, “Evacuation Day” is going to soon be considered a national holiday so that we can have a real reason not to work on a Monday (and to get blind drunk), just as my dear Rhode Island has its Victory Over Japan Day. But if Boston is just trying to give St. Patrick’s Day some historical relevance so that we can party, don’t you think maybe we should reevaluate what the “holiday” is supposed to be for in the first place?

I’m still waiting for someone to tell me what it is exactly that we are celebrating.