I am catching up with posting online my articles. I moved to a new place and I was without fixed internet access for almost a month. I was also very busy with work and that is why I got this big delay with posting online. Though I did not skip a single day with writing my articles.
Although I was raised in the catholic family, I don't really know who St. Patrick is. Only today I have tried to find some information about him because I have decided to write an article about the celebrations of the St. Patrick's Day, which is quite an important day ( 17th of March ) for the Irish. Thus I have found out from Wikipedia that he was involved in evangelization of the northern half of Ireland in the 5th century and that he converted "thousands". Interestingly though even there are millions around the world who celebrate St. Patrick's Day on March 17th, the fact is that Patrick has never been canonized by the Catholic Church and is a saint in name only. Anyway he did something, which was/is seen by many people as remarkable and thus he is being regarded as saint and he is the most commonly recognised patron of Ireland.
I am not Irish myself and I do not celebrate St. Patrick's Day. But I have seen other people doing it through organizing public parades and festivals, ceilithe, and I have seen that they wear green attire or shamrocks. Thus I am more like an observer although I could very easy join the celebrations actively. And being this passive observer puts me into position of looking at it from different perspective. And while looking at it from the side I ask myself couple of questions. And the main one is...
"What would Patrick say about all the people who end up the celebrations completely drunk, with hangover or with broken bones as a result of the fight while being drunk ?"
It is a very simple question but I doubt that there are many people asking it themselves. Otherwise they would not do it... or would they ?
According to the Irish, Patrick did something worth respect and that is why he is the patron of Ireland. So another question of mine is:
"Why do they do the opposite and why do they show complete disrespect for him ?"
Now... have a look at this one... Imagine that you have somebody who you really admire and respect because s/he did and/or s/he still does something remarkable in her/his life. But then s/he dies. And what will you do next year on the anniversary of her/his death ? Will you get so drunk that you end up on the sleeping on footpath covered with your vomit without memory of how and when you got there ? Is this how you going to show your respect to this person which died last year and which you admired and probably still admire so much ?
To be continued...