Introduction to Christianity + Green Beer = Holiday???

Question

I don't get the entire green beer drinking thing and the way it ties into Ireland's introduction to Christianity.

Its either about becoming Christian or drinking your face off like a Pagan (which is actually anti-Christian).

Whats the deal with the drinking thing? Is that just a genetic thing?

I was not saying drinking is anti-Christian - I'm saying acting like a Pagan (by drinking) whilst you are celebrating your religion's induction is.

Answer 1

It's a lot like New Year's Eve. You have to watch out for the people who take any holiday as a reason to get drunk, despite the original reason for the holiday.

Some people will use any excuse: bachelor party, New Years, 4th of July, graduation, St. Patrick's day.

Answer 2

Actually many cultures considered pagan by Christians do NOT partake of alcohol, so that's incorrect.
In Ireland, ST Patrick's Day is a holy day and we go to Mass and spend time with our families.
In America, they do bizarre things like green beer and bagels and huge parades and drunken parties.
I don't get it either and I grew up in Boston. I get the parade part and Irish pride, but that was a day for us to attend church, see the parade and then the whole family hung out together. There was no drinking til you vomit and acting up. It would not be permitted.
So it isn't a truly Irish thing, and it isn't necessarily a genetic thing. (Can you genetically program someone to want green beer on a specific day? I think not!)
It's American bastardization of Irish holy customs. Halloween is the same thing- it's an Irish pre-and post-Christian tradition of honoring the dead, and now the Americans have pumpkins, costumes and candy industry exploitation.
I don't get the American mass consumption thing- but it's not us Irish responsible for it!

Answer 3

There's nothing anti-Christian about drinking, no matter what you think.

Hello... Jesus... wine... blood...

I agree green beer has nothing to do with how Irish celebrate St. Paddy's Day in Ireland. As an Irish American, I can tell you that most Irish pubs in the US don't do the green beer thing. That's more of a Midwesterners thing or what Americans do where there are no good Irish pubs that serve Guinness..

The beer is just the grease to get the conversation flowing. It has nothing to do with Christianity, and no one ever claimed it did.

It has to do with being Irish, and if you know about Ireland, you wouldn't ask, because the pub is the center of social life in Ireland, and always has been.

That's why American's drink on St. Paddy's Day. It's a place where everyone can be Irish and get to know other people in a friendly, Gaelic manner.

Erin go brach!

Answer 4

Yo, yo, yo! Don't forget driving the snakes from Ireland!

As with most things, when Americans get hold of it...it changes into something it wasn't originally. March 17 is St. Patrick's Day, like St. Swithin's Day, St. Michaels Day, St. Katherine's Day...all the Catholics saints have a designated feast day. St. Patrick is, among other things, the patron saint of Ireland and thus, his celebration in the auld sod. As the Irish immigrated to the US, they brought the custom with them and for some inexplicable reason (perhaps because there isn't much else to celebrate between New Year's and Memorial Day), we American's added the parades, green beer (in Chicago, they dye the Chicago River green...kid you not!) and other silliness. Erin go braugh!

Answer 5

Green beer = not Irish...why would we ruin good beer?

And by the way....
Don't spell it Erin, Eireann is a much more accurate spelling.