Green Beer on St. Patrick's Day

It has become a tradition on St. Patrick's' day to dye beer green. I thought it silly that people would do this and that it has become such a wide spread tradition, because in Ireland, St. Patrick's' day has been celebrated primarily as a religious holiday.

We celebrate St. Patrick on March 17^th because that is the day that St. Patrick died. St. Patrick is well known as the Patron saint of Ireland.

When St. Patrick was a teenager he was captured and spent six years in slavery. Before he was captured he was of the pagan religion, however while St. Patrick was enslaved he found his spirituality in Christianity, embraced it, and became closer to God.

After escaping slavery he studied Christianity for twelve years and became a priest, at which point he decided that his calling was to convert the pagans of Ireland to Christianity. So he returned to Ireland to convert the Irish to Christianity and continued this mission for thirty years.

Now that we have a bit of background on St. Patrick, we know that it has been primarily a religious holiday. As a matter of fact in Ireland the pubs were required to close on March 17^th, it was this way until the 1970s.

Then around 1995 the Irish government decided to promote Ireland and Irish culture to the world. Apparently, promoting Ireland is promoting drinking. Call it a pet peeve, but for some reason it bothers me that people would actually change a religious holiday, to one where drinking beer is promoted by dying it green.

So, I ask you this would St. Patrick have wanted you to go out and get trashed on the day of his death? I don't think so.

Yes, I get it that green is promotion of Ireland, I also get it that being Irish is associated with drinking beer, but I feel that once a holiday is commemorated as religious that it should remain religious. This goes for all the religious holidays as well.

Now, don't misunderstand me, I am not against a nice glass of wine, a small drink, or even a beer on holidays. Moderation is the key. My peeve is about promotion of these holidays with alcohol (the green beer.)

I totally get promotion and celebration of the Irish with the color green. Chicago, for instance, for the last forty years has been dying the entire Chicago River green as part of the St. Patrick's Day celebration.

As you can see, there are other ways to promote a religious holiday without promoting alcohol consumption. So, remember St. Patrick for what he lived and died for because those are the reasons that we celebrate St. Patrick's Day.

References:

http://www.religionfacts.com/christianity/holidays/st_patricks_day.htm

http://wilstar.com/holidays/patrick.htm

http://www.greenchicagoriver.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Patrick's_Day