Why do they still dye the rivers green for St. Patricks Day? It's not a good look for downtown Chicago.

Blackout@kbin.run to Ask Lemmy@lemmy.world – 281 points –

I just think the novelty of these type of displays was up in the 90s, It's time for an upgrayedd. I propose leprechauns flying up and down the river wearing water jet packs, shooting people with their Chicago-style hot dog cannons would be more with the times. What's your idea?

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As a Dubliner (Ireland, not one of the many Dublins across the pond), I must say that Americans are really weird about Paddy's Day. We have a large parade in Dublin and smaller ones in smaller cities, and then those of us who have kids ho to family fairs, and the rest for a pint at the local. We leave the city centre to the tourists who get shitfaced on overpriced, prepoured Guinness for no good reason. And even though we did some weird things with our river (the time in the slime), we never dyed the Liffey green.

Americans look for any reason to get shitfaced. Ask anyone what Cinco de Mayo is about about. Most wont have any clue.

which, you'd think, hey France, we hate the french (which is hilarious considering the Statue of Liberty and La Fayette).... Mexicans beating the French should be easy to recall for us.

The whole French thing is so goddamn funny, from an outside perspective - I mean, France is basically one of the few major countries the USA never fought a land or proxy war against - their only war was the Quasi war which was solely smaller naval battles and was clearly the US fault. And France was almost always willing to back the US...while the US let them down countless times.

Have you never met an American? Look at it from the perspective of an inferiority complex and you may begin to understand.

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It's the lack of curiosity or effort to act on it. If I have a question, it's moments before I open the phone and check for an answer. I always get annoyed at people who ask me questions instead of doing it themselves.

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St. Patrick's Day in America has always been more of a celebration of Irish-American immigrant culture than it is of Ireland itself.

We have a lot of people who live far from their country of origin, so they get really excited when they get to celebrate their heritage and get a special national holiday. Then of course the rest of us Americans love a good time and excuse to party, so we love celebrating alongside them. It's all in good fun. When I was younger, there was a whole neighborhood that went off the hook for stuff like St. Patrick's Day, Mardi Gras, and stuff like that. My friends and I would always be so excited to go down there and party it up. It's a really good time for everyone involved.

In Liverpool, which prides itself on its Liverpool roots, Paddy's Day is one of the days to avoid town and most of the pubs for me. Absolute carnage. The other ones to avoid are Grand National weekend, particularly Ladies Day, and Mother's Day.

Mother's Day? Really? That's quite surprising. Why is that?

It's a drinking city. People go out for a family meal, get pissed up, things get raucous, fights happen. It's not everyone, but if you work in bars it's one of the nights you dread, especially in the rougher places where the fights kick off. I worked in one of the roughest city centre bars many years back and the fights between women were way worse than the ones between men. Absolutely vicious.. And I say that as a woman btw.

Here in the states St. Patrick's day is more about Mad Sweeney from American Gods or The Lucky Charms mascot than it is about the guy who invented the Shamrock as a Catholic mnemonic. Go to your local department store like Target or Walmart and look for St. Patrick's Day seasonals and you'll find four-leaf clovers where shamrocks should be.

We can't tell the difference and don't really care. We'll just take our kids to McDonalds to get a minty milkshake.

The whole French thing is so goddamn funny, from an outside perspective - I mean, France is basically one of the few major countries the USA never fought a land or proxy war against - their only war was the Quasi war which was solely smaller naval battles and was clearly the US fault. And France was almost always willing to back the US…while the US let them down countless times.

A vile, "minty" milkshake.

A vile, “minty” milkshake.

Not as vile as its mascot, Uncle O’Grimacey

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