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-   -   St.patricks day in Scotland ?...? (https://www.fodors.com/community/europe/st-patricks-day-in-scotland-925893/)

Ashley_Quintern Feb 29th, 2012 02:18 PM

St.patricks day in Scotland ?...?
 
Hi I am an American and I will be in Scotland for St.patty's day and I was wondering if they party and celebrate it there? I'd like to be prepared and know if I'd look like an idiot wearing green and four leave clover stuff, lol.

nytraveler Feb 29th, 2012 06:40 PM

Sorry - but do you know anything about St Patrick? Or about the most common religions in Scotland?

Can only suggest you google ex-pat bars in Edinburgh or wherever.

jaja Feb 29th, 2012 07:07 PM

#1 It is St. Patrick's Day and not St. patty's day
#2 The Irish symbol is the shamrock, not the four leav clover.

janisj Feb 29th, 2012 10:14 PM

Green beer and shamrocks are more common in Boston and New York than in Edinburgh . . . .

alanRow Feb 29th, 2012 10:50 PM

Scotland has it's own patron saint and doesn't need to celebrate other people's.

However any of the Oirish bars will be "celebrating" it (ie they'll be beer just like the other 364 days of the year) and if you go to Glasgow they'll be many people celebrating it due to Irish "links".

And yes you'll look an idiot dressing in green especially if you refer to shamrocks as 4 leaf clovers

alanRow Feb 29th, 2012 10:51 PM

<i>Green beer and shamrocks are more common in Boston and New York than in Dublin . . . .</i>

Corrected your statement

flanneruk Feb 29th, 2012 10:55 PM

In the major British centres of the Irish diaspora (above all Glasgow, but true in bits of Edinburgh too), St Patrick's Day is traditionally NOT a day for celebrating Irishness, but the day for some Irish origin Catholics to celebrate not being Protestant.

Some Scottish (and Liverpool) Irish-origin Protestant extremists have a parallel celebration on July 12: generally accepted among most Irish to be the anniversary of a battle affirming Protestant dominance in the British Isles (the rest of us acknowledge it as the anniversary of accountable democracy in the English-speaking world). In places patronised by that group, acknowledging St Patrick's Day in public almost guarantees physical confrontation at the very least. Being American is absolutely NOT an excuse.

Elsewhere in Britain, St Patrick's day is almost entirely a trivial excuse by pubs and beer brands to run sales promotions. A bit of that has penetrated to parts of Scotland - but even there, wearing plastic paddy regalia is the mark of a fool: confusing clover with shamrock is the mark of an insular ignorance you'd have thought too moronic even for Americans.

Looking like a refugee from one of those absurd American March 17 parades looks inane anywhere in Britain (especially if you don't know what you're wearing). In some parts of Glasgow, and a few parts of Edinburgh, it's not far short of suicidal. The kind of behaviour that carries an instant nomination for a Darwin Award (google it)

janisj Feb 29th, 2012 11:03 PM

alanRow: "<i>Green beer and shamrocks are more common in Boston and New York than in Dublin . . . .

Corrected your statement</i>"

I would have posted the same --but I didn't want the OP to feel a complete putz :)

So I just addressed he specific question re Scotland . . .

Dr_DoGood Mar 1st, 2012 04:47 AM

And for gawd's sake don't ever, but never, refer to it as St. Patty's day. Just don't. That may wash in the land of green beer and leprachaun pardes but it will embarass you, even endanger you, anywhere else.
So stop it.
Dr D

chartley Mar 1st, 2012 05:14 AM

I am just wondering if you have made the situation completely clear to the O.P.

robertino Mar 1st, 2012 06:54 AM

I am just wondering how much money Fodor's could make if they published a book of stupid Forum questions.

There is a lady on another thread who is planning a bus tour for her adult son.

Ashley_Quintern Mar 1st, 2012 10:08 AM

wow some of you were really nasty, it was a simple question, and in AMERICA we often do refer to it as St.pattys day, just an abbreviation. NO ONE had the right to be rude about it, and you should feel ashamed. Their are always better ays to get your point across, and this was not one of them.

janisj Mar 1st, 2012 10:29 AM

Yep -- in <i>AMERICA</i> (I'm a Yank too) . . . That has nothing to do w/ St Patrick or the UK

Look at it this way - folks being 'rude' here probably prevented you from (innocently) making a fool of yourself in Scotland.

BigRuss Mar 1st, 2012 11:00 AM

Are you even Irish or Catholic? Personally, I never understood why Americans would dress up in green to celebrate an episode of Irish Catholic significance if they were neither Irish nor Catholic. The simple problem is that in the US, St. Patrick's Day has been removed from its sectarian roots (despite the name) thanks in no small part to Americans of Irish descent (predominantly Catholic) who promote the Irish Catholic historical view as the Irish view (three words: bipartisan IRA sympathy). This is not a comment on correctness or validity, just an observation of the influence.

And Ashley, the Protestant/Catholic divide still echoes enough in Scottish culture (two words: Celtic, Rangers; this works also with Hearts, Hibs) and history so that a St. Patrick's Day celebration is not an "Irish" celebration but an Irish Catholic one.

vjpblovesitaly Mar 1st, 2012 11:13 AM

"wow some of you were really nasty, it was a simple question, and in AMERICA we often do refer to it as St.pattys day, just an abbreviation. NO ONE had the right to be rude about it, and you should feel ashamed. Their are always better ays to get your point across, and this was not one of them."

It is my understanding that Paddy is short for Patrick, Patty is short for Patricia. If that is correct, everytime you see it as Patty in the USA it is incorect. For the record, some people think it is disrespectful to shorten a saint's name. They are important to people of the Catholic faith. Maybe that is what was meant, by "It's Patrick, not Patty."

PS. As long as responses aren't against the forum guidelines, responses can be as the responder wishes it to be.

historytraveler Mar 1st, 2012 11:27 AM

Perhaps the poster should have looked at the responses as a learning experience instead of getting upset. I've been around for awhile and if you're thin-skinned you won't last long on this website.I've been taken to task a few times but once the initial sting wears off, I'm grateful for the information and/or corrections. IMO a number of posters beome resentful of criticism and take it far too personally.

willit Mar 1st, 2012 11:41 AM

That the OP finds the replies offensive or nasty again highlights that people communicate in different ways on either side of the Atlantic. I could see very little nasty in responses.

Ashley, if you take nothing else from the thread, please note that the answer to "I'd like to be prepared and know if I'd look like an idiot wearing green and four leave clover stuff" is yes, very much so - and in the wrong areas it could be not only embarrassing but dangerous to you.

nytraveler Mar 1st, 2012 12:45 PM

There is one poster on this board that seems to go over the edge at anything at all related to Ireland or the Irish. Don't know why and I think the comments sometimes go too far.

However, it is very naive of the OP to think that an Irish catholic saint would have a holiday celebrated in other parts of the world that are not heavily catholic or heavily Irish. It betrays a complete lack of appreciation of the differnces between major religions. Other countries have their own patron saints (which we in the US don;t celebrate). And many protestant sects don't really believe in saints at all - that was one of the reasons for the Reformation. It is naive to assume either 1) Scotland is a Catholic country or 2) the Scots would celebrate a holiday for the patron saint of Ireland.)

It is also extremely naive not to be aware - at least in very general terms - of the hundreds of years of discord and civil war between catholics and protestants in Ireland - and how that might be reflected in other areas of the UK that are primarily protestant.

(It is sort of like asking if Ramadan is a big holiday in New York. No, NYC is not primarily Moslem and Ramadan is not a major holiday for the city in general. One can certainly find a religious center and group to take part in activities - but there is no parade up Fifth Ave with 500,000 pipe and drum corps.)

Padraig Mar 1st, 2012 03:26 PM

Anybody who thinks that St. Patrick's day in Ireland is a religious festival celebrated mainly by Catholics is sadly mistaken: it's party time, and the biggest drinking day of the year.

Being a curmudgeon, I usually stay at home on 17 March.

jaja Mar 1st, 2012 06:28 PM

Fwiw, I am an American of many decades, raised Catholic, currently Presbyterian and descended from both Irish Catholics and Irish Protestants. I have never heard St. Patrick's Day referred to as St. Patty's Day (except occasionally on Fodor's).


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