WI another St Pats

Tyr

A friend of mine once made an interesting observation.
There are only two days of the year the whole world gets drunk; new year, and paddies day.
An exaggeration of course. But still, it is curious how widespread st pats is, even beyond the domain of areas of Irish settlement.

How could we get a similar situation to exist for a holiday associated with another country?
I don't just mean the horrible spread of American style haloween here but rather something which has the culture (or a bastardisation thereof ) of a country at its core?

The closest I can think of is burns night but that is nowhere near so widespread or celebrated as pats.
 

cpip

Cinco de Mayo seems to be beginning to approach that thanks to beer commercials. Maybe given a bit more time it'll get there?
 
shiftygiant

shiftygiant

Gone Fishin'
So a big Drinking celebration (which St. Patrick's Day isn't in Ireland but okay)? Maybe if you avoid WW1 you could see Oktoberfest become a bigger thing without the Anti-German sentiment?
 

overoceans

I don't just mean the horrible spread of American style haloween here
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You rail against Halloween, but I'd have to speculate that St. Patrick's Day has become a global holiday as a result of a similar process of Americanization, especially via US pop culture.

Without Hollywood, Tin Pan Alley and Madison Avenue picking up on the holiday habits of the Irish diaspora, I question how widespread the recognition of St. Patrick's Day would be. It would probably have about as much of a presence in the global village as does the French-Canadian St. Jean Baptiste Day. That is, slight to nil.
 

Morty Vicar

Banned
It's just occurred to me Ireland has no independence day, that could be a big deal with the same expats (pun intended :p)
 

Riain

Banned
overoceans said:
You rail against Halloween, but I'd have to speculate that St. Patrick's Day has become a global holiday as a result of a similar process of Americanization, especially via US pop culture.

Without Hollywood, Tin Pan Alley and Madison Avenue picking up on the holiday habits of the Irish diaspora, I question how widespread the recognition of St. Patrick's Day would be. It would probably have about as much of a presence in the global village as does the French-Canadian St. Jean Baptiste Day. That is, slight to nil.
Click to expand...

St Patricks day in Australia has little to nothing to do with Hollywood and more to do with a large Irish descended population which due to the difference of Catholicism has maintained a few seperate traditions. Indeed a long tradition of being treated like shit has fostered these little cultural things, so when the Irish became to be seen as something other than dogshit in recent decades their (our) quaint and enjoyable traditions have been embraced by the wider community.
 

Tyr

rail against Halloween, but I'd have to speculate that St. Patrick's Day has become a global holiday as a result of a similar process of Americanization, especially via US pop culture.

Without Hollywood, Tin Pan Alley and Madison Avenue picking up on the holiday habits of the Irish diaspora, I question how widespread the recognition of St. Patrick's Day would be. It would probably have about as much of a presence in the global village as does the French-Canadian St. Jean Baptiste Day. That is, slight to nil.
Click to expand...

The parade thing is a nonsensical Americanisation that I saw for the first and only time in Tokyo.

Generally though no. St Pats in the uk and Ireland has been a day to have a few drinks for a long while and this is the version most common seen abroad.
St pats spread is more down to the remarkable spread of "craic culture" and the Irish empire (an Irish pub in any decent sized town).
I'd love to figure out the reasons for that one.

cpip said:
Cinco de Mayo seems to be beginning to approach that thanks to beer commercials. Maybe given a bit more time it'll get there?
Click to expand...

I've only vaguely heard the name of that. Had to Google to read something about it. I think that's US only.
 

overoceans

Well, this photo is from the London parade, and looks pretty kitchy to me. And apparently, they do call it a parade.

But I'll concede that places like Australia do have authentic traditions, outside of the Hollywood Culture Industry. I'm probably biased as a result of being from Alberta, where there was relatively little Irish settlement, but St. Patrick's Day still manages to get itself observed, in a Leprachauans and McShakes sort of a way.

link
 

Morty Vicar

Banned
This isn't very PC, but is there any way to get the anniversary of the Boyne bigger in the USA with Ulster Scots immigrants? They have orange order branches in the Bronx and in Canada, but other than that it's not very popular in the OTL outside the UK.
 

overoceans

Morty Vicar said:
This isn't very PC, but is there any way to get the anniversary of the Boyne bigger in the USA with Ulster Scots immigrants? They have orange order branches in the Bronx and in Canada, but other than that it's not very popular in the OTL outside the UK.
Click to expand...

I think the longevity of the Orange Lodge in Ontario was fuelled at least in part by fear of Catholic political influence, especially in the form of separate schools. As late as the 1985 election, you still heard Orangemen being mentioned as a political force in the province(though I think by that point, the Lodge was being used more as a synechdoche for protestant resentment generally).

So maybe if there was ever a serious threat of state-sponsored Catholic education in the USA, the Orangemen might have had a fighting chance. But, and this is mostly speculation on my part, I'd imagine that, among rank and file US protestants, the Lodge's identification with the UK might have offended their patriotic sensibilities. All-American groups like the Know Nothings and the 1920s KKK were almost certainly more appealinbg to the masses than the Orange Lodge.
 

NoMommsen

call from the continent : ????? St.Patricks day ?????

Over here St Christophers Street day is much more of a party ! :D


What about the 23rd of april ? "Tag des Bieres" (Day of the beer)
On 23.04.1516 there was the first decree that stated, of what a beer only has to be made of.

Let's assume after EU came into place, allowing also for beer brewed with other stuff (rice, corn, strwberry [or what else belgians dare to put into the cattle]) leads to a big upheavel of the (mainly german) brotherhood of the ture-beer-drinkers.
It's annual celebration might be then picked up elsewhere.

Prost, Skôl, Cheers :)
 
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