Friday, March 18, 2011

Why, I Ask You?

So, Saint Patrick's Day was yesterday. I wore my green turtle earrings - because they are epic - but didn't do much more than that. The whole school seemed obsessed with it. Like with Valentine's Day, it really made me wonder why people celebrate these things?

The few people I asked said that St. Patrick's Day was a celebration of Irish heritage.

If that was the case, why does everyone seem to celebrate it when everyone is most certainly not Irish? I got invited to an "Erin" party one of seniors was having in one of the classrooms after school. I didn't attend because I wasn't feel so great and because it felt entirely and completely arbitrary, not to mention very exclusive. I mean, seriously, a name party?

St. Patrick's Day, like so many other holidays like Easter started out as Christian celebrations and have turned into secular holidays. Although, I guess Easter doesn't really count because it's still retained such an importance to Christianity. St. Patrick is remembered because he brought salvation to Ireland. I'm not sure of all the details, but that is pretty much what happened.

It just really bugs me, society and all. They place so much value on looks and appearance and this and that and not on what really, truly matters. Irish heritage. Shouldn't we have a major celebration for English heritage then? French? Dutch? Italian? But no... it's just... such a minority thing.

Minority things. I really dislike debacles revolving around minorities. Most of them are so... so... minor! I mean, there is a reason something is majority and something is a minority. Yeah, I understand we should respect and honor and be aware of the minority, but if you're not allowed to wear an American flag in a California school just because for some Mexican holiday, that's just taking things way too far. That's placing the minority above the majority and saying "Lookee here, we're doing something for the people no one pays any attention too."

The thing is, I seem to fixate on problems like that. I think about half of the people who edited Count the Rocks for me asked if there wasn't some other difference I could use besides for "black" and "white." No. The story was not about the racism between black and white, but rather something that could have been done. People just grabbed a hold of the racism and cried foul. Shouldn't we be complaining about St. Patrick's Day? Because it's so entirely Irish. But no...

Society is so inconsistent.

1 comment:

  1. An Erin party? That's so... stupid. XD

    Hm. Good post. maybe this is why you always find yourself writing about racism... =P

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