Happy St Patrick's Day

Happy St Patrick's Day! Today millions of people world-wide will be celebrating the life and times of one abused slave who managed to escape, got educated and converted, and then came back to spread the good word and convert the rest of the heathen to Christianity. Booyah! Lots of green will be worn, parades will be marched in, and green beer will be served. People will party hearty, and Lent? Well, Lent will be dealt with tomorrow - LOL.

Have a wonderful St Patrick's Day. Have fun and stay safe! 

Unless ... you're a resident of most of the Archdiocese of St Paul and Minneapolis. You see, the Archbishop of this area, Bernard Hebda, is allowing our 800,000+ area Catholics to eat their corned beef and cabbage on St Patrick's Day. BUT (because there's always a but) they "must undertake a work of charity, an exercise of piety, or an act of comparable penance on a different day" during the 2nd week of Lent. Oh ... and nearby city New Ulm has refused to allow the breaking of Lenten tradition. Of course, New Ulm is a German and mostly Lutheran city, so it's rather moot.

I'm not really sure why there's all this fuss about corned beef and
cabbage. It's really not even a traditional Irish meal. But it is
tasty, so I do make it on occasion just because it's easy to cook
and tastes wonderful. 

The entire idea of eating meat on Friday during Lent (and being able to get his annual treat of corned beef and cabbage) was quite exciting to DH who likes his fish on Fridays during the Season. I just laughed, told him to eat whatever he wants, and am still planning on fish tonight because I happen to love fish and it's a nice, healthy alternative in my diet. DH can get his cabbage for lunch if he wants, but he probably won't bother. He's thinking sushi, which sounds really good.

We both love sushi and have it quite often. I'll envy him lunch if
he has sushi, but that's OK, because I always gain weight with
all of the rice and salt. 

I always find it very amusing that a Catholic who never attends church always holds to the "eat no meat" rule for Lent, and that I, a pagan/Jewish-heritage total non-believer walk right along with him and eat fish too. Of course, I'll still have my normal breakfast and there's bacon there, but I do enjoy my fish for dinner during Lent.

I'm not really sure why, but one Minneapolis bar consistently has the
top sales of Jameson in the nation - year after year! Of course, we
have a heavy Irish population, but there are actually more Irish
in St Paul than in Minneapolis. Oh well, it gets awards from the
distillery every year. 

So, wear your green, parade in your parades, drink your green beer and Jameson Irish Whiskey (responsibly, please) and celebrate along with the Irish. Why not! Happy Friday to all!