What do Irish people do in Dublin on St. Patrick's Day? If they are not working with the Garda or are selling green Leprachaun hats, they do not seem to spend any time in the city centre.
It might seem absurd, but please imagine the following: A country is celebrating a national holiday well known beyond its own borders. On the day of the celebration, thousands of foreigners fly into the country, dress in the nation's colours and watch a parade, which seems completely devoid of any notion of locality. That is St. Patrick's Day in Dublin for you. At least how I perceived it.
The whole spectacle is almost fascinating in its absurdity. The hunt for authenticity has culminated in a tourist spectacle, where Americans dressed in Green watch American high school marching bands in the capital of a foreign country. Of course, Germans watch it too. And Spaniards and Brazilians and Italians and Brits and French people. Only the Irish seemed to be conspiciuously absent from the festivities.
According to Wikipedia, St. Patrick's Day commemorates the death of, well St. Patrick. Widely credited with spreading Christianity in Ireland, he is considered the patron saint of the country. Various legends surround St. Patrick, even though there is not a whole lot of evidence, which holds up to modern scientific standards concerning the exact details of his life. Legend has it that he used the shamrock to explain the concept of the holy trinity to the then-polytheistic Irish people.
St. Patrick's Day, apart from having a religious significance, also celebrates Irish culture in general. These festivities are especially prevalent in the United States, where a sizeable part of the populace has Irish roots. My guess is that the importance of St. Patrick's Day in the USA has led to the assumption amongst some people, that in the country where this holiday has its origin, the festivities must be the real deal.
Interestingly, the festivities for St. Patrick's Day resembling the ones we know today have their origins amongst the Irish diaspora in the United States, not in Ireland itself. The holiday did not even even seem to be widely celebrated in Ireland until the late 20th century. Which leads me to the conclusion, that the most Irish of all holidays can be probably be experienced at its best in New York City or Chicago and not in Dublin.
Maybe I am just not a big fan of parades and overwhelming amounts of tourists.
I took out my digital camera again for the aforementioned festivities. There are no photos from the parade in this article, despite the text being concerned with that very parade. I am not a journalist. Rather these photos form a visual journal of my own personal St. Patrick's Day. But that much should probably be clear to anyone who has followed this blog for a while.
Worte und Bilder / Text and Images
