Saint Patrick’s Day
Ok, it is a big Irish holiday, I get it, but it still makes me wonder why my 8year old learns tons about this Saint Patrick from the tiny island of Ireland but she doesn’t learn anything about German culture in school. They do not celebrate any Karneval here! Well, let me say, they couldn’t really. According to Wikipedia more than 50 million Americans claimed to be solely or partially of German descent which is second to about 55 million Hispanics in the US. On the other hand there are only about 34 million Americans who claim Irish heritage. This number is funnily enough seven times(!) larger than the entire population of Ireland!! And yet, today is a huge deal in the US with parades, green rivers and lots of stout. And my daughter has to read stories about this Patrick, she built Leprechaun traps in Kindergarten, she has to write a whole poem about that guy, gets super excited about it and she doesn’t really know what the Martinstag is or how to celebrate Karneval. That makes me a bit sad. And on top of that, she has to wear something green to school today in order to not get pinched by others. Who the heck came up with that?? Just an hour ago I had to glue little fleece shamrocks onto hair clips and green necklaces for my German American girls because I refuse to buy a green T-Shirt just for this one day. Well, I have to say, they also celebrate Chinese New Year, Cinco de Mayo and all the different kinds of “christmas” traditions here, too. They learn about Hanuka, Kwanzaa and that Muslims don’t celebrate Christmas at all. I appreciate that all the different cultures are implemented in school education. Furthermore there is not really a typical German holiday that would make it on the list and we all know that being German hasn’t been something to brag about it in the last century. Maybe I should introduce the first German holiday here? The day of football on July, 13th? Or we all start celebrating The National Reibekuchen Day? Apparently some places in the Mid-West have annual Sauerkraut Days since the early 1900s, woah.
Anyway, I have some dear Irish friends and would love to visit Ireland one day, but I’m not participating in the shenanigans today. Over the years I learned about Saint Patrick, too, and you can sum it up in these lines (I copied my daughter’s worksheet):
St. Patrick was a missionary. St. Patrick died on March, 17th. Shamrocks grow in Ireland. Leprechauns are tiny elves. The Irish flag is green, white and orange. St. Patrick’s cathedral is in New York (I didn’t know that until yesterday!). You have to wear green on March, 17th.
As you may have noticed, I love quotes and if this one stands for St. Patrick’s Day, I’m happy to recognize it, but I won’t wear green today! Don’t you dare pinch me.
