Sure, I like St. Patrick’s Day for the annual corned beef meal, but that’s about it. You won’t catch me wearing green, I won’t down a Guiness, and, long story short, I won’t go around pretending to be Irish, like so many people do. All too many people make believe that they are Irish for a day (and the weekend before, and the weekend after) during St. Patrick’s Day, and run around going bar-hopping and acting like fools. Now if you’re of Irish decent, I have no beef with ya…it’s your holiday and you do what you like. But there are more non-Irish people celebrating it here in the States than those who are Irish, and for that I say boo.
So on that note, I want to make my voice heard for all us Italians out there, that we want a holiday too. I mean, just picture how awesome a holiday would be if the Irish stuff was replaced by Italian stuff. For example, everyone would down awesome, delicious wine rather than beer. And let’s face it, wine is tastier than beer, goes better with a dinner, and gets you feeling good faster than a bottle of beer would. Secondly, the food. Screw the corned beef, cabbage, potato, and Irish soda bread. Sure, it’s a decent meal, but what about a GREAT meal?! Picture it: lasagna, baked ziti, meat pie, chicken cacciatore, veal piccata, sausage and peppers, pasta, meatballs, fresh warm Italian bread with some extra virgin olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and seasonings to dip it in…mmmm my mouth is watering just thinking about it!!! And what about dessert?! To be perfectly honest, I don’t even know what an Irish dessert is, but look at Italian desserts: cookies, cannoli, spumoni, tiramisu…simply fabulous!
So while I don’t mean to bash Irish cuisine and culture, I’m just saying that Italians need an ethnic holiday in the U.S. too. To be quite honest, both the food and drink are better, and I think people would have a great time getting drunk on wine and eating warm, hearty food. Easter is kind of a good example, so maybe that counts? Or maybe Columbus Day? Don’t start hating on me and telling me about all the bad things Columbus did…I’m a historian, so I know. However, it is an important holiday to Italian-Americans, and maybe more of us should start embracing it as such, rather than for the man himself.
