Allison Cafe

Mar
17
2010

Happy St. Pat’s Day! And 1 year of Allison Cafe!

A Drinking Song

by William Butler Yeats

Wine comes in at the mouth

And love comes in at the eye;

That’s all we shall know for truth

Before we grow old and die.

I lift the glass to my mouth,

I look at you, and I sigh.

May you all feel lucky today, I know I do! Today is one of my favorite holidays. It also happens to be the one year anniversary of starting my blog, Allison Cafe. So happy anniversary too! In honor of the day we will be feasting on corned beef and cabbage and homemade Irish Soda Bread this evening.Oh, and maybe a Guinness or two as well!

St. Patrick’s Day Fun Facts

Saint Patrick was a priest. He was born to wealthy parents in Britain and his birth name was Maewyn Succat. He took Patrick as his Christian saint name when he became a priest. As a priest he spent his days teaching the Christian faith in Ireland. After his death, the country decided to honor him with day of his own – Saint Patrick’s Day.

Saint Patrick’s Day was originally celebrated as a religious holiday. It started as a simple feast day to honor St. Patrick but developed into a holy day of obligation where people attended mass in the morning and celebrate for the rest of the day in the afternoon. And gave Catholics a one day reprieve from lenten fasting, leading to a tradition of indulging in beer!

Corned beef and cabbage is a traditional Easter Sunday dinner in Ireland. But today it is a St. Patrick’s Day must for us in America!

Irish Society of Boston organized what was not only the first Saint Patrick’s Day Parade in the U.S. colonies but the first recorded Saint Patrick’s Day Parade in the world on 17 March 1737.

Originally the color associated with St. Patrick was blue not green. But green won out over the years – obviously!

Shamrocks, three-leaved plants, were thought to have been encouraged to explain the Holy Trinity to the pre-Christian Irish. Saint Patrick was known to have used them in his teachings. Wearing and displaying shamrocks and shamrock-inspired designs have become a ubiquitous feature of the day.

Cheers in Irish Gaelic is “Sláinte”, which means ” to your health”. In the South and West of Ireland it is pronounced “slawnt-yeh” or “slant-yeh”, in the North it’s “slain-cheh”, with the “ay” much broader than in the English “slain”.