"Leprechaun Day"

Last week,  I found myself in the midst of a ridiculous debate with my four-year old daughter over whether or not there was a Leprechaun Day in March. I think that she's seen pictures of Leprechauns and assumed that the holiday was in honor of those mystical creatures. I was not pleased that she was confusing a holiday in honor of a Saint with an Irish legend.

Today, St. Patrick's Day has become an excuse to drink green beer and gorge ourselves on corned beef dinners. If you really take the time to learn about Saint Patrick, you'll discover that he was the patron saint and national apostle of Ireland who is credited with bringing Christianity to Ireland. He used the shamrock as a symbolic way to explain the Holy Trinity to pagans. I'm positive a Leprechaun was not in Saint Patrick's vision.

Earlier in the year, we were inundated with commercial efforts to tug on our collective heartstrings and buy our loved one's candy or better yet, expensive jewelry to express our love on Valentine's Day. The history of Valentine's Day — and its patron saint — is shrouded in mystery. But we do know that February has long been a month of romance. St. Valentine's Day, as we know it today, contains vestiges of both Christian and ancient Roman tradition. Today, the Catholic Church recognizes at least three different saints named Valentine or Valentinus, all of whom were martyred. According to one legend, Valentine actually sent the first "valentine" greeting himself. While in prison, it is believed that Valentine fell in love with a young girl — who may have been his jailer's daughter — who visited him during his confinement. Before his death, it is alleged that he wrote her a letter, which he signed "From your Valentine."

If we fast forward to present time, I believe our fear of offending different ethnic or religious groups has resulted in losing any true meaning of the holidays on our calendar. We've gone beyond an ecumenical approach to the season and it's become completely generic. For example, my wife hates it when people wish her "Happy Holidays" during the Christmas season. She will respond with "Merry Christmas." She refuses to let political correctness diminish her sacred belief in Christmas.

Our desire to be inclusive has resulted in either grouping holidays on our calendar or worse yet, commercializing them. Whether it's celebrating President's Day instead of specifically recognizing two of our great Presidents, George Washington and Abraham Lincoln; grouping Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa and New Year's into a generic time of year; or getting so caught up in the commercialism of holiday gift-giving, that we skip over Thanksgiving entirely, we are moving away from enjoying the true meaning of each holiday on our calendar.


I wonder what drives our compulsion to water down the importance of our holidays. Is it commercial greed or fear of litigation that if our zeal for celebrating a specific holiday offends the wrong person, we may find ourselves the defendant in a class action suit? I guess at the end of the end of the day, it's up to Donna and I to make sure we teach our children the true meaning of holidays on our calendar. I just can't wait until I can find a greeting card in a mainstream shop that allows me to express the love I have for my wife or perhaps even a Mother's Day card that can be given to both of us from our children. 

A woman can dream, can't she?