St. Patrick’s Day Pinches
Mark K March 17th, 2008
I was walking my dog in my neighborhood today (St. Patrick’s Day) when I passed a neighbor’s house. A woman was getting out of her car to join a man and woman who were standing in front of the house. She was dressed in green from head to toe so the man said, “I guess no one is going to pinch you today!” Both of the women, who were probably in their 40′s said that today was the first time they had heard of the tradition of pinching someone on St. Patrick’s Day if they weren’t wearing green. One of them suggested that “maybe it’s a California thing.”
I was kind of amazed by this little conversation. Doesn’t everyone do the pinching thing (not to be confused with the “pinche” thing) on St. Patrick’s Day?
- cultural diversity
- Comments(2)
Everybody knows that you get pinched if you don’t wear green On St. Paddy’s day. Another fine tradition lost….
I used to teach elementary school (until 2004) and I can assure you that the kids all knew, or soon learned from others, about St. Patrick’s Day. I doubt that they knew the tradition of it, but they knew about the pinching if you didn’t wear green.
And while we’re discussing holidays, here’s an explanation of why Easter is so early this year (the last time it was this early was 1913).
Easter falls on the first Sunday after (not on) the full moon that happens on or after the official Vernal (Spring) Equinox.