St. Patrick

Did you know that St Patrick’s original name was Maewyn Succat, that he was probably born in Wales, and that he spent a lot of his youth chasing sheep? Even back in the 5th century, he could totally change his identity.

Many interesting and unusual activities take place every St Patrick’s Day. In locations all over the world, street traffic is usurped by parades, pubs are overwhelmed with people drinking green beer, the Chicago River is dyed green, and the Toronto Maple Leafs wear green shirts to play hockey. This man has influence, 16 centuries later!

Torontonians really get into the St. Patrick’s Day spirit. It got me wondering: how many Irish people actually live here? According to census data, the Irish are the 4th greatest in number, around 10 % after the Chinese, English and Canadian. The biggest concentration is in the High Park area. A lot of them, wearing green, were at the St Patrick’s Day parade on Sunday.

Peter and I were heading downtown to see a Mirvish play on Sunday afternoon anyway, so we decided to crash this annual celebration. Sure enough, the first question we were asked by a parade watcher was: “So what county in Ireland are you from?” Oops.. we couldn’t even think of a name of a county to bluff with! Then we saw Olivia Chow in the parade. If she could pretend to be Irish, so could we.

As we walked north along Yonge St, we saw lots of marching bands, rugby players, bicyclists hoisting balloons, a tiny boat from Niagara called Misty, a Batman car, a Chinese dragon, and even this contraption with no name:

The kids were having the best time. Several performers were children or teens. Small spectators were dressed up from head to toe as they sat on the curb and waved.

Some intriguing inclusions were bands, dancers, and floats from Scotland, which struck us as rare. When did these 2 countries, Scotland and Ireland, become such buddies? When had the United Kingdom become so united?

We looked around and realized that the parade also included cultural artifacts from Asia. There were marchers from workers’ unions across Ontario. And there were cheering crowds from all over the world. This was our multicultural city in action. On St. Patrick’s Day, we were ALL Irish.

Top o’ the mornin’ to ya!

Sue