Does St. Patrick’s Day have his­tor­i­cal “drink­ing roots” or is the prac­tice of imbib­ing some mod­ern skew of the orig­i­nal celebration?

Irish and non-Irish alike are out in their finest, green­est attire today in cel­e­bra­tion of St. Patrick’s Day. Besides wear­ing green and eat­ing corned beef and cab­bage, the other activ­ity many peo­ple asso­ciate with the hol­i­day is drinking.

Traditionally, St. Paddi’s Day falls dur­ing lent and cel­e­brates the work of its name­sake. St. Pat de-heathenized the coun­try and spread Christianity through­out the isle. Christians in Ireland then had an excuse to take a break from lent for the cause of cel­e­bra­tion of St. Patrick and his work. This break prob­a­bly meant that they had a free ticket to indulge in what they had given up for lent; beer or some other form of alco­hol were com­mon lent sacrifices.

Arguably, the mod­ern cel­e­bra­tion of many hol­i­days has been taken to extremes. Thanksgiving has become a free-for-all of overeat­ing, Christmas a gift-giving consumer-driven night­mare, and St. Valentine’s Day has become so clad in candy and pink hearts that it is almost too cutesy to han­dle. The orig­i­nal mean­ing of St. Patrick’s Day seems to have fallen vic­tim to this “uber-celebrationism.”

St. Patrick’s Day is now more a cel­e­bra­tion of Irish nation­al­ism and pride than a day of cel­e­bra­tion for the spread of Christianity. I’m not imply­ing that this mod­ern man­i­fes­ta­tion of the hol­i­day is in bad form or cause for a wag­ging fin­ger, though. Having pride in one’s her­itage (or in many cases some­one else’s) and using St. Patrick’s Day to cel­e­brate it is per­fectly fine in my book.

I am all for an excuse to party down and drink good-grade green dye, but I am not thrilled about the idea of the major day of cel­e­bra­tion of Irish cul­ture being one giant kegger.

Though the hol­i­day does have a his­toric tie to drink­ing , this prob­a­bly should not be the main focus of celebration.