Taps

St. Patrick's Day to tavern owners is what Black Friday is to the retail business. It's the busiest day of the year for most. It's a day that if all who claimed to be Irish actually went to Ireland, the island would sink. But leave it to New York City to come to the rescue. Taverns open for breakfast while Fifth Avenue is closed from 96th to 44th Streets for the annual parade representing not only those of real Irish decent, but politicians, first responders, schools, interest groups, political parties and just about anyone else who can walk fifty blocks and wears green to identify with the Irish for a day. It's an annual event that is 250 years old and people actually come from Ireland to New York just to be a part of it.

I'm not really sure what all the partying has to do with a lad who was kidnapped and taken to Ireland as a slave and then escape, only to return later as a bishop. Tradition says that he used the shamrock to explain the three persons of the trinity as he spread God's word throughout Ireland for the next thirty years.

My how things have changed during the past 1600 years.