It’s March 17, 2014 , and I am wearing a mint-toned sweater to elementary school after coming back from a refreshing weekend. As I walk down the familiar marbled tiles with my backpack, my mind keeps drifting to my leprechaun trap, The Shamrock Hotel. It consists of everything a leprechaun would need to stay in my first grade classroom: a bed, a shelf and even a pot of golden chocolates in case he needs a midnight snack, all encased in a shoebox. Little does he know that there’s only a pencil holding this box open to the world, and it can close him off at any given moment. So I open the classroom door, expecting my contraptions or one of my classmates’ to catch that mystical creature when all of a sudden — bam.
The entire space looked like it had been hit by both a Category 5 hurricane and an earthquake that broke the Richter scale, and strangled the color green in the process. Tables were tumbled, chairs were turned and a blatant emerald sparkle had sprinkled its trail all around the room. The leprechaun had dodged the traps, and it was up to our class to find what he left behind.
My elementary school experience with St. Patrick’s Day is reflective of the features of many students in America’s encounters with the holiday during childhood: leprechaun scavenger hunts, wearing green to avoid getting pinched and chocolate coins. As I made my transition from the simple multiplication in elementary school to the algebra concepts in middle school, though, the March class celebrations would be overshadowed by what I would call the “big three” of holidays: Halloween, Christmas and Valentine’s Day. To elaborate on my point, when people typically talk about preparations for a holiday, they mainly refer to one of the three listed. If you had the pleasure of listening to a conversation in high school history class, in one of the two campus dining halls or even in your workspace, you can recall preparations for what costumes a person would wear for that party in October, visiting their family in December or gifting a special person flowers in February. It is comparatively rare to highlight a conversation involving plans for that uncommon day in March. That is strange, as you’d think that the excitement and joy should carry on to adulthood. So what makes March 17 different as I get older?
To answer this question, I must first navigate the origins of what is now a day of shamrocks and pots of gold. This day is a celebration of the bishop and missionary Saint Patrick who introduced Christianity to Ireland. St. Patrick’s Day is both a Chritian holiday and a celebration of Irish heritage. The origin of this holiday brings me to my first reason why I notice a decline in these celebrations as I get older.
When navigating a YouGov survey of which holidays Americans enjoy the most, St. Patrick’s Day, Juneteenth, and Indigenous People’s Day rank near the bottom on the list. Three of those four holidays are, to some degree, associated with specific ethnic groups. There is a tendency to connect with familiar structures, which is why holidays celebrating more vague concepts such as love or family are more popular than the acknowledgement of ethnic demographics. Irish American identity comprises just 10% of the American population, according to a Pew Research study.
Besides holidays that are affiliated with minority backgrounds being underacknowledged, another theory I have as to why the childhood popularity of St. Patrick’s Day decreases in adulthood is due to the fact that the holiday cannot be narrowed down to a simple theme. Some of the most popular holidays in America can be summarized into a single relatable word or phrase. When someone is asked to name a holiday associated with “family,” the common answer would be “Thanksgiving” or “Christmas.” When you hear the word “appreciation,” your first thought of a holiday is probably Valentine’s Day or Mother’s or Father’s Day. Seeing the phrases “freedom” or “rebellion” may give memories of the burnt smell of the barbeque grill during the Fourth of July or the zany yet charming costumes of Halloween. When you approach St. Patrick’s Day, that holiday cannot be narrowed down to just one phrase or term. Yes, I concede that “green” can be associated with the holiday, but the color cannot be applied as an emotionally connective concept. If you try to describe the holiday with terms such as “heritage” or “faith,” you would have to elaborate on the ideas of St. Patrick’s Day beyond just a broad definition, which is a reality that could be hard to come to terms with.
Maybe I shouldn’t be so pessimistic about the March holiday. Holidays serve a meaningful purpose beyond whether or not they appeal to the majority demographic. They allow us something to look forward to as we deal with the usual tediousness of everyday life. It’s something to cherish as a bookmark for another chapter of your year. So maybe it does not matter whether or not St. Patrick’s Day is overshadowed by the bright lights of Christmas or the candy bars of Halloween, and the fact that St. Patrick’s Day stands out from 365 days makes it important enough. Whether you prepared a feast with your friends, drank a green Gator smoothie or did not observe the holiday, remember that just because a holiday is no longer associated with the leprechaun traps and the end of the rainbow from childhood doesn’t make it less special. Maybe it means that you can take the time to reconstruct its meaning.