This coming week is a very, very exciting one! It marks my being here for 2.5 months! That's half way! I feel mixed between extremely excited at the thought of going back home but also sad that my study abroad adventure is waning. I feel like there's still so much more left to do! But I do have a whole month a head of me that's entirely free and only two exams in May!
Also, this week my family is coming to visit!! In fact, they are heading to Logan as I write this :) It's going to be so much fun showing them around Cork, it'll make it feel more like I live here. And I can't wait to see them! :) :)
And finally, I can't forget...... IT'S SAINT PATRICK'S DAY ON SUNDAY!!!!!!!!!
yes that needed to be in all caps and loads of exclamation points. Everyone knows how much i love st. Paddy's, and this year, I get to spend it in the motherland :) St. Patrick's Day in Cork is celebrated by a three day festival.That's more than I expected since before I came here I heard they didn't do very much to celebrate. But anyway, there's a bank holiday on Monday so we have no classes! There's also a parade on Sunday in the city center that i'm looking forward to. I'm anticipating a huge drunken mess of Cork city this weekend the way the Irish party. It should be interesting. Don't worry, I'll take pictures of the craziness.
I think I'm gonna take a minute here and actually explain what St Patrick's Day really means to the Irish. It's not all about parades, and dressing up in crazy leprechaun costumes, and boozing hard. It's the celebration of Christianity in Ireland, brought here by St. Patrick. Ironically, St. Patrick is not actually Irish. He is a Roman British that was captured by the Irish at a young age and held captive here until he escaped when he was a teen. It was only later, when he was a bishop, would St. Patrick return to Ireland, bringing Christianity with him. He taught the Irish about the trinity using the shamrock as a symbol. He pointed out that the shamrock has three leaves, which stood for the Father, Son and the Holy spirit. The Irish took to his Christian teachings and it is now the main religion of Ireland. To honor him, they dedicated a feast on the 17 of March to him as that is the day he passed away.
But why is it that we dress in green from head to toe? Green symbolizes the color of christianity. It is customary to wear shamrocks in St. Patrick's honor as it is he who made them so special to the Irish.
Today, we celebrate St. Patrick's day less as a religious feast and recognition, but more of a national pride kind of thing. It's Ireland's one true day to shine. To me, St. Patrick's Day is a day to celebrate patrons like St. Patrick, the brave men who fought for the Irish revolution and the innocent who fell victim to the war, the Irish in the rural country that died from the famine and those that were forced to relocate (many never returned home), and my own Irish ancestry. It's a day to celebrate Irish heritage and be thankful I have the Luck of the Irish on my side. So on Sunday, when you're drinking you're green beer take a few minutes to actually appreciate the day and say "Sláinte, la Fhéile Pádraig Shona Duit!"
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