In Pursuit of Irish Celebration

When Chris and I started dating, I was surprised to hear that his favorite holiday was St. Patrick's Day.  I soon learned it was more so for the Americanized day of green beer and festivities than for the patron saint of Ireland (and, surprisingly, Nigeria).  Growing up, I had always celebrated the day by *sometimes* wearing green (when I remembered) and  enjoying tolerating "Corned-Beef and Cabbage" for dinner.  Over time, the flavors of this traditional Irish meal grew on us, and when Chris and I married, I decided to continue the tradition each year.

Through the years, we've added to our celebration of the [British] man who was kidnapped by Irish pirates and kept as a slave for six years before escaping and returning to England.  It is said that after returning to Britain, he had a dream in which the people of Ireland were begging him to return and bring the Gospel of Christ to them. Thank you to my dear friend Colleen for the above picture from her 2014 visit to Ireland :)

Through pure coincidence, we started our week of Irish celebrations with the Oscar-nominated movie, Brooklyn, which told the story of a Irish immigrant who comes to American in the 1950's.  As a complete sucker for historical dramas, I obviously loved it.  I felt Saoirse Ronan well deserved her nomination for best actress.  BTW- remember that crazy movie about the little girl who was raised to be an assassin?  Same actress.  Literally just figured that out as I was writing this.  The movie completely got us in the mood for celebrating both of our Irish heritage.  And it's a book.  I haven't bought it yet, but my "books to purchase" list seems to be growing faster than it did before I started my goal of completion.

Thursday morning began with the children enjoying green eggs while wearing their green fare.

An interesting bit about the original St. Patrick's day color... Spoiler alert: it wasn't green.  Jump to 25.15 to hear Bryan McGovern, associate professor of History at Kennesaw State University share the original color and also hear about the incorporation of corned-beef into this holiday.

That night, we listened to a Celtic Pandora station during dinner and each took a turn doing a jig afterwards.

Friday night, we enjoyed our Reuben sandwiches with a cold Guinness.  I use Boar's Head corned-beef, Swiss cheese, and sauerkraut along with  Publix Rye bread with Caraway seed and Thousand Island dressing.  I pan-grill them with Kerrygold Irish butter and served them, sliced in half, with kettle-cooked chips.  Again, Celtic music set the mood as our background music.  No jigs were performed this night.

On Sunday, we concluded our Irish festivities with our corned-beef and cabbage dish.  I like to let our roast cook slowly at a low heat to help it become tenderized.  I serve it with boiled potatoes and a green salad.

Do you celebrate St. Patrick's Day?  Is there another saints day that you celebrate?  What are some of your family traditions for these holidays?