By ELLA SILVA
As I’m sure most of you are aware, St. Patrick’s Day in America is largely just an excuse to party. People pull out their best green t-shirts, maybe attempt some sparkly green or rainbow makeup, and find a place to go party. In my experience in the U.S., this typically happens primarily on the weekend immediately before or after the actual holiday. Sure some people get wasted on a Monday, but a large amount of more formal celebrations will happen on a weekend night.
That is most certainly not the case here.
I woke up bright and early last Monday morning to my upstairs neighbors shouting and screaming because they were already pregaming. At 7:30 a.m. This wonderful human experience was possible because our university was closed and there were no classes since it was a holiday. School-sanctioned day drinking!! Yay!!
I myself chose to participate in some of this day drinking by getting ready to hit the bars with one of my friends at noon. We decided to walk the roughly 30 minutes to where we were planning to go so we could feel the vibes in the air, and we could certainly feel them. Other than people heading to events, bars, or parties, there was basically no one around. Many businesses were closed. It felt kind of like Christmas if it was a little more chill and entirely about partying.
The green shirts and sparkly makeup are certainly universal though. On our journey nearly everyone we saw was wearing green, or some kind of joke t-shirt, or both. City employees were handing out little flags with shamrocks on them. People were drinking from full bottles of wine in the street. Vibes were incredibly high.
I genuinely don’t think I’ve ever experienced an energy quite like how it felt to just walk down the street with all of this happening on kind of just. A random Monday. We ended up going to a handful of bars throughout the day, and the vibes were even more fun inside. Lots of singing and cheering and drinking. Just extremely fun and filled with joy overall.
Going into this day, I was super curious to see what people in Ireland (well. Northern Ireland which is technically the U.K. cause that’s where I am. But you get it) actually do for St. Patrick’s because I know that in the U.S. we have a tendency to take a holiday from another country and kind of make it our own thing, but honestly the energy was pretty similar, just more fun and a little more commitment to it being an Actual Holiday, with school and businesses being closed. This makes me want to experience it in bigger cities in America to see how it holds up.
Honestly though, if you happen to find yourself in Ireland, the North, or the Republic, for St. Paddy’s, be prepared for fun and drinking and silly energy. 10/10 would recommend. It was however extremely exhausting to keep going all day and I did take a giant nap between rounds of going out.
Featured image: Crayola.com
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