Grab a shamrock. Paint your dog green. Everybody’s favorite holiday is here.
It’s only one day a year. No matter your color or creed, everyone’s Irish for a day.
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Sure, there’s Christmas and Easter, Passover and Chanukah, Eid Al Fitr and Eid Al Adha. None of these holidays, however, unites us in the same unfettered manner of celebration and brotherhood as St. Paddy’s Day.
I’m not overlooking the religious aspects of the day or the fact that many believe that St. Patrick will be standing alongside of St. Peter in judgment as the Irish take their place in line at the Pearly Gates.
On St. Patrick’s Day, we get the chance to reach across the chasm that often divides us. Just for a day, we suspend our differences as we knock back a pint of disgusting green beer, festoon ourselves with funny hats, pinch the unsuspecting bottom of an erstwhile friend not adorned in green, or when we predictably forget the words to an Irish classic ingloriously sung off key.
Even the White House gets into the act.
Ah, the Greening of Washington
The annual shamrock ceremony at the White House has become such a familiar fixture in the political calendar that it’s easy to overlook the extraordinary and unlikely nature of today’s events in Washington.
Starting with a bilateral meeting in the morning and ending with a lavish reception this evening, the leader of the most powerful nation on earth will devote much of his working day to one of the smallest countries in Europe – one that is not even a military ally of the United States.
The first St Patrick’s Day parade took place in 1737 in Boston, followed in 1762 by New York. George Washington allowed his soldiers a holiday on March 17, 1780, as “an act of solidarity with the Irish in their fight for independence.”
A Green Slant on Mexico
A regiment of the Mexican army in the 1846 to 1848 War between Mexico and America was named after St Patrick. Members of the Batellón de San Patricio included African-Americans freshly liberated from the slave plantations of the South, and the soldiers were granted Mexican citizenship afterwards.
From my point of view, it’s all about the green. Green is everyone’s favorite color. These days, in the midst of our worst economic crisis since the1930s, there’s just not enough to go around – unless you work for AIG or Goldman-Sachs.
With everything that’s gone wrong, maybe we don’t need more mega-programs or spending bills. Maybe we need to stop wringing our hands and worrying about the things we can’t genuinely control. Maybe all we really need is a little bit of Irish luck.
I don’t know about you, but today, I’m off in search of that elusive little fellow in the green jumpsuit in hopes that he’ll lead me to the pot at the end of the rainbow. I guess if you drink enough green beer, you’ll chase anything.
Erin go brah.
John Cohn is a senior partner in the Globe West Financial Group, based in West Los Angeles. He may be contacted at www.globewestfinancial.com
