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| Parade in Albany NY by Sébastien Barré (Flickr) |
JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: Happy St. Patrick’s Day, the day when famously everyone in the US becomes Irish for 24 hours. I hope you all have something green on, and that the corned beef and cabbage is ready in the instapot!
Of course, in reality, the American celebration doesn’t have a lot in common with the actual day in Éire, where it’s traditionally been a combination religious festival and bank holiday. Yes, it’s true: the actual citizens of Ireland did not invent the Shamrock Shake, green beer, or the Sexy Leprechaun costume. Shocking, I know. That corned beef and cabbage? American. They don’t even dye their rivers green, for goodness sake.
My theory is when you combine a large immigrant population in the United States with a holiday that offers the opportunity for 1) booze, 2) food and 3) a huge American-style blow-out, it’s going to take off in popularity. Cinco de Mayo has become very popular in the past decade or so, and I’m waiting for Chinese New Year to take off in a big way, because we need a festival in late January/early February and I, for one, love Chinese food and beer. Oktoberfest has become so prevalent in the US that we’ve stopped spelling it the German way.
There are immigrant groups that just haven’t been able to bring it across. Sometimes, it’s the timing: the Scots’ Hogmanay takes place on New Years Eve, and there doesn’t seem to be a strong impetus to add haggis to the champagne-and-ball-dropping festivities. Muslims have the most amazing food for Eid celebrations (seriously, if you get an 
invite, go) but alas for American sensibilities, there’s no alcohol involved. I think Holi could be a great fit in the US - who doesn’t like eating Indian food and going wild with colored powder and water? It looks like so much fun! Unfortunately, the lunar date always puts it in March, and there aren’t many places in the continental US where the weather is right for dressing in light garments and getting color-bombed.
Reds, what holidays would you like to see added to the American calendar? And how are you celebrating St. Paddy’s Day?
RHYS BOWEN: a few years ago my publisher with misguided enthusiasm sent me to New York on St. Patrick’s Day. It turned out that nobody was going to come to a book event on St. Patrick’s Day, because the streets were full of drunken revelers. Lesson learned.
I’m always annoyed that there is no specific English festival that we celebrate. Also, the English have no national costume and no real national dances apart from morris dancing which is incredibly silly, so how about St. George’s Day when we could get together around a May pole and eat bangers and mash, a cream tea, maybe toss a few pancakes or just go down the nearest pub.
Hank Phillippi Ryan: I am still annoyed by losing my hour of sleep. I think we should have national sleep day! When everybody gets to have anything celebratory they want, say, mullled wine, or hot milk, or tea with brandy, or like, anything, hot chocolate let’s say, and then they get to take a nap. A big nap! And everybody gets to get back their hour of sleep. Yes, this is kind of brilliant. I want “national get back your lost hour of sleep day.” Who’s in?
JULIA: I think we can all get behind that holiday, Hank.
JENN McKINLAY: I love St. Patrick’s Day! I love it when NPR reports live from Dublin and they interview the revelers. Hilarious. And I have so 
many fond memories of going to the parade in New Haven with my college friends and, yes, drinking green beer. So ridiculous! It’s not that big of an event in Phoenix. We do Cinco de Mayo pretty well in the SW. Chinese New Year has long been celebrated in my house because I’m never ready for the calendar New Year and prefer to start my resolutions, etc. on the Chinese New Year plus there’s egg rolls. My pick for a new holiday would be Jolabokaflod (Christmas book flood). The Icelandic tradition started in 1944 and basically books are given on Dec 24th and everyone spends the day reading their new books and drinking hot chocolate. Hank, you could probably work in a nap as well!
HALLIE EPHRON: I live in a town where more kids take Irish Step Dancing than ballet. My neighbors were the Murphys, the Murphys, and the Murphys. I’m very fond of my neighbors, Irish soda bread is ok, but my memories of St. Patrick's Day in Boston’s Southie are all about sloppy drunks and how dangerous it was for the long-haired and bearded to attend the Parade. People got beat up.
Corned Beef and Cabbage? Maybe someone can share the trick to buying/cooking corned beef that doesn’t taste like boiled socks.
LUCY BURDETTE: Jenn, I love your holiday, let’s do it! We can add in something delicious to eat. And definitely Hank’s nap…
Hallie, I never thought I liked St Patrick’s Day food until I made my own soda bread and corned beef and cabbage. Both were delicious!
https://www.mysteryloverskitchen.com/2021/12/irish-soda-bread-take-one-lucyburdette.html
https://www.mysteryloverskitchen.com/2022/03/corned-beef-and-cabbage-in-slow-cooker.html
DEBORAH CROMBIE: I like to make corned beef on St. Patrick's Day, but it is so salty! (Can't get Hallie's "boiled socks" description out of my head…) And Rick doesn't particularly like it, so maybe I'll celebrate with leek and potato soup, instead. With Irish Soda bread!
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| Baily Puggins by DaPuglet (Flickr) |
Cinco de Mayo is fun here in Texas, but if we were adding a day to the calendar, I think I'd go with Jenn's Jolabokaflod. What bliss. And I'm always so proud of myself when I remember how to spell it!
JULIA: Now it's your turn, dear readers! What are you doing to celebrate the wearing o' the green? And what's your vote for Best New Holiday to incorporate into our marvelous multicultural calendar?
