A Town Painted Green

As the snow begins its very first stages of the melting process in many parts of this country, we can all smell a hint of spring awaiting us right around the corner.  It's mid-March which not only is synonymous with the madness of college basketball but is also marked by perhaps one of the craziest holidays all year round: Saint Patrick's Day.

St. Patty's Day to me is always a curious study of people's love to celebrate.  I for one, don't have any Irish in me (or at least I don't think I do...), but that aside, every year I am quick to don a green outfit and join the masses in eating bangers and mash and swaying to Irish songs alongside all my friends at an "Irish Bar" no matter what city I'm living in.

New York, known for gloriously celebrating holidays, always had a fantastic Saint Patricks Day Parade.  Now the holiday usually falls during a week day so unfortunately, I was never able to go see the parade... there were other obligations, namely work, that prevented me from a mid-week rendezvous.  But fear not, someone a long time ago thought - why should a holiday mid-week prevent everyone from celebrating?! Easy solution: move the party to the weekend.  Every year the Saturday before or after, whichever was closer, would hold a city-wide Saint Patricks Day celebration.  In a city so cold this time of year, I think it is not only a day to celebrate Irish heritage but also to celebrate the coming of spring.

This year, even though I wasn't in NYC, the celebration this past weekend was still huge.  Actually, I think it's one of the biggest all year that takes place in Columbia, South Carolina.  Complete with green-dyed fountains, the town was transformed into a sea of green, and I mean that quite literally.  25,000 people came out to celebrate Saint Patricks Day.  The festival was complete with food vendors, beer trucks and three stages graced by a continuous string of bands filling the air with music.  Of course I was soaking up the nice weather with green beer in hand, yes green, and not holding back in my indulgence of Irish bangers, bbq sandwiches and the free nachos one stand was giving out... hey, it's an American celebration of Saint Pats and in the South no less.

Being new to town, we decided that it would be fun to "volunteer" during this festival, at least for part of it.  Our charitable duties including nothing more than standing in front of a Budweiser truck and pouring out a selection of beers for any thirsty festival-goer willing to shell out $3.  It was a site to see watching people pass by our truck.  Since we worked the morning shift which ended at 1PM we hardly saw the tip of the iceberg, so-to-speak, of people in attendance.  I did however, see a few families with babies in strollers who ever so cautiously would eye our truck, almost making it all the way by until one person (I saw it happen via Mom AND Dad) would hang a sharp left with the stroller, whip out some change and sheepishly say - well I guess I'll have one!  Amongst the crowd was lots of green hair dye, sparkling and even light-up mardi gras beads and yes, I even saw a 6 foot tall leprechan - complete with orange hair, top hat and cane.



Although it was quite the interesting crowd, I noticed that fortunately it was a nice and well behaved one with everyone genuinely happy to be celebrating a great day with food, music and lucky for us - sunshine.  I love that Saint Patricks Day is a day to celebrate such a strong and proud heritage.  I hope one day I get the chance to actually travel to Ireland, which I hear is beautiful and inhabited by very gracious and fun people.  For now, I'll just continue to find as much green clothing in my closet as I can and join the masses in food, drink and good times, every March to celebrate Saint Patricks.