#25: A bit o' green

The weather here is absolutely gorgeous, and we headed out this evening for a walk around the neighborhood. As there are four Irish pubs within walking distance and today is St. Paddy's Day, there was a lot of activity. It made me smile to see everyone walking around with green shirts or ties or pants (in my case) -- what a comical holiday. My students and I had discussed the strange happenings of the day in the morning. "Why does everyone wear green?" "What about that green beer?" "Why Irish?" I had never really considered why we wear green and run around pinching people and drinking green beer on March 17. It just is this funny holiday (that has not been too commercialized by anyone outside of the beer business.... yet). I did a bit of reading on the ever-resourceful Wikipedia about wearing green and shamrocks and such, and the activities of our celebrations in the US are none the clearer. What I do know is that I enjoy seeing everyone celebrate something kind of silly and our evening walk was made all the more pleasant by the good weather, good cheer, and green.