Luck of the Irish Imitators

St. Patrick's Day. A school tradition. From the time we are small children, we are taught that we wear green on St. Patrick's Day. I dressed my kids in green today. Didn't want them to feel left out. The holiday can have a different bent to it in the high school, I discovered. Students still dress in green - "That's what you are supposed to do!" - but thay can also spend the day perpetuating easy classifications of the Irish culture. I saw many t-shirts in the school today. I tried to find images for them online and could only find things that were close.

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I gave up on dressing in green a few years ago, when I realized that I could use my lack of green as a starting point for a discussion as to why the students dress in green on the 17th. To the best of my knowledge, I have no Irish blood in me. I come from Eastern European stock. I would tell

my students that my ancestors would be disappointed if I pretended to be Irish for a day. Once we observe and celebrate Bohemian immigrants, I will dress up. Some students are from Irish backgrounds, and I congratulate them. Some are not and try to argue that St. Patrick's Day is not simply an Irish holiday. But it is a day when we can bring up our cultural backgrounds and discuss why some are celebrated and some are not in this melting pot of a nation.

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But beyond denying our true heritage, we can also discuss how these holidays and observances take complex cultures and simplify them. Restaurants offer Mexican food specials on Cinco de Mayo, but do not promote ideas about what the holiday or the culture are really about. Things can get more difficult on St. Patrick's Day. March 17th can tie those of Irish descent to drunken, lecherous behavior (see: Kiss me, I'm drunk). I saw many shirts promoting ale, drinking, pub crawling, and partying. Any student would want to embrace the Irish nationality on this day if it means that they can claim to be part of a heritage that is all about rebellious, reckless behavior. But what about their understanding of Irish folk beyond the slogans?

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Media such as t-shirts and buttons do not allow the depth needed to communicate an entire nation or culture. So, in finding something witty or memorable, what damage are we doing to the complex item we are ignoring. We can discuss that as a class, and did get to discuss it on a small scale today.

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If I had my choice, I would market t-shirts with quotes from Samuel Beckett:

We are all born mad. Some remain so.

You're on earth. There's no cure for that

You must go on, I can't go on, I'll go on.

Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail
better.

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Though Beckett was Irish, these could be used to on a holiday to celebrate the artistic/creative culture. We will call it Happy Day. I think I will start on the holiday and the t-shirts once I finish this post. Happy Happy Day, everyone! Let's bury ourselves up to our necks.