St Patrick's Day..

[max_tranmere]

An Irish guy I know who is a lot older than me told me that in many parts of Ireland St Patricks Day was barely marked a few years ago. He said that it is huge now in Ireland and in Britain mainly because Guinness turned it into a big commercial event with advertising, promotions, lots of pubs laying on special evenings and things, and it grew and grew to being this big event now largely because of Guinness trying (and hugely suceeding) to bolster their business. Can anyone confirm this? It is just something I heard. I have some Irish in my background but don't regard myself as Irish at
all, and I intend going out on Thursday night but mainly because it's just an excuse for a piss-up.

[Bob Singleton]

I remember being in Dublin on St Patrick's Day in the late 70s (a few days later was the Ireland v England rugby match for which I had tickets) and I don't remember much of a fuss being made. Some people wore shamrocks on their lapels, in much the same way as some Welsh people wear a daffodil on St David's day, but I would tend to agree with the "Guinness marketing" explanation. A quick look on ebay for St Patrick's Day decorations will reveal many bear the Guinness logo!

[we8derby]

its an excuse to wear those fucking stupid guinness hats!

[Arginald Valleywater]

Who needs an excuse to drink a Guinness?!

[David Johnson]

Max,

Marketeers are always looking for events to build sales around. So St. Patricks Day, Mothers Day, Fathers Day, Halloween, World Cup etc etc have all seen a big increase in marketing, sales etc etc. And the advertising gets thrown behind that once the event appears to be a goer in sales terms.

Cheers
D

[jimslip]

About the only genuine day, I think is, "Mothers" when servants were allowed to visit their mothers (For one day) in the 19th century.

Fathers Day, Valentines day were all propagated and marketed by the card companies.

[pornoshop]

I think there is some truth in that. But as we have seen such large celebrations in the US in places such as Boston we feel like joining in - similar to the US style Halloween celebrations and events we are seeing more and more of over here. I think it's great!

[frankthring]

While agreeing that modern marketing has reduced old festive
occasions to nothing less than an excuse to make money, I would add
to Mr Slip`s point that in her 1851 novel, "Cranford", Elizabeth Gaskell
talks of a celebration of Halloween and the (at the time very new) habit
of sending Valentine`s cards.
I have never been able to quite understand Halloween....it is the 2nd and
less important (to Satanists) festival. Traditionally Walpurgis Night -
All Hallows Eve (night 30th April/1st May) is the only time when the Devil
can be summoned to a sabbat. But I am digressing.....

[max_tranmere]

Interesting comments there.

Christmas is, of course, largely a commerical thing too and we are bombared by information about thngs you can buy your loved ones for ages in advance of it just so companies can make money - but at least Christmas WAS celebrated by huge numbers of people years ago when it was not a commercial event and in communites that had very little money.

St Patricks Day seems to have gone from being, from what this Irish person told me, about as big as Ash Wednesday or Easter to being this massive thing now almost solely because of the money to be made. Think of how much money Irish pubs all over Ireland, Britain, the USA, and many other places will make tonight. I am expecting the pub tonight where me and my pals are going to have Guinness promo logo's all over the place, Guinness hats for sale, and so on. On Friday more people will be saying "we made a fortune last night" than will be saying "I am proud that we celebrated the day of our nation's saint yesterday".