Classics from the Past: St. Patrick Day Celebration Memories with Update

By Ruth Ann Pilney -
Carving of St. Patrick at My Parish Church

Some of my Chicago Irish Facebook friends humorously posted that Valentine Day indicates that St. Patrick Day will be here soon.  The Chicago Irish, like American Irish in other large cities, celebrate St. Patrick Day in a big way.  And one doesn’t have to be ethnically Irish to join in the festivities.

I have observed in the past decade or so that St. Patrick Day Celebrations, like Mardi Gras in New Orleans, have degenerated into a kind of day of debauchery, especially characterized by drunkenness and overall immoderation.  This sort of celebration is a far cry from how I remember St. Patrick Day celebrations in our family, perhaps a half century ago.  Also, it seems to dishonor, rather than to honor, St. Patrick, the one whose holiness Catholics celebrate on that day
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