St. Patrick's Day is not a reason to drink!!
St. Patrick's Day in America may be seen as some as a pot of gold on the calendar – a chance to don green while swigging jade beer and searching for an ounce of Irish ancestry with the same tenacity as you would a four-leaf clover.
But as the experts tell it, the day that originated in America is a prideful one for Irish and Irish Americans, one where their heritage is celebrated.
St. Patrick is the patron saint of Ireland, brought to the Emerald Isle when he was kidnapped and enslaved, ( does this sound familiar to African Americans and others). When he was 16, he was captured by pirates and brought to Ireland, where he was sold as a slave. Though he eventually escaped, he returned and advanced Christianity throughout the island. He is celebrated on March 17, the day he is believed to have died. He escaped to France in 408, and he was ordained as a bishop in 432. He was then sent by Pope Celestine I to Ireland to support Christians there and spread the religion.
He gets an entire National Day to celebrate him?! He wasn't even Irish!!! WHAAAAT!
Alcohol was really not much not a part of St. Patrick's Day celebrations in Ireland until recently. The mythical belief that green is to be worn is to "make you invisible to leprechauns (a little bearded man wearing a hat, who does mischief) " OKAY???????
It was kind of a family day that you’d celebrate, but no alcohol was available. … Because it was a holiday in Lent, you could not buy alcohol on that day. People have always associated the Irish with drinking, not every stereotype is completely true.
Alcohol is a drug, JUST SAY NO!!