ADV: The Irish Spirit

Is it just me or has anyone realised we have something to celebrate every single month for the past several months?

Last month, we had a long Chinese New Year holiday, then Maulidur Rasul and even Valentine’s Day.

The month before that, in January, we had the New Year of course. Some people drank so much they are still recovering from their hangover from the 1st January.

Then in December there’s the Christmas and Awal Muharram public holidays.

As if that’s not enough, Najib declared 18 December a public holiday because we won the ASEAN Cup.

Yay.

Imagine if we won the World Cup. Whole year no need to work!

In November? A Triple Whammy. Hari Raya Haji, Deepavali and Kenny Sia’s birthday. The latter not currently recognised as a public holiday, but maybe in the near future.

Anyway, my point is, after a good four months in succession filled with public holidays, we got so used to the constant festivities and celebrations. Then all of the sudden, we arrive in the month of March and we realised, "Oh shit. No public holidays in March. Got nothing to celebrate! HOW NOW?"

To that I say, "Don’t worry lah bradder. If Malaysia got nothing to celebrate, then we borrow from other country loh!"

Of course, I’m talking about the most important day on the Irish calendar – St Patrick’s Day!

All around the world, people are celebrating St Patricks Day doing one of three things: (1) Going on a street parade.
(2) Partying in an Irish pub.
(3) Drinking Guinness!

In Malaysia, we seem to only concentrate on the last two, but the St Patrick’s Day street parade is the SECOND most colourful street parades I have ever witnessed.

Serious!

The first was the Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras.

March last year, I was in San Diego for a convention. I stayed back just to see how the angmohs celebrate this festival honouring everything green and Irish.

The St Patrick’s Day Parade held in Balboa Park, San Diego was a real eye-opener for me. They say you can’t be too serious on St Patrick’s Day, but these people really took the whole parade soooo seriously.

There were people dressing up as druids and elaborate horsemen outfits.

There were old men on mini toy cars.

Even puppies joined in on the parade wearing green tutus!

Of course there were also plenty of stalls selling everything green and Irish (but made in China) products.

It’s such a silly but simple event. Yet it created such happy moment for everyone who participated or watched the St Patrick’s Day parade.

That’s the Irish spirit – happy, carefree and never take oneself too seriously.

Its difficult to describe a St Patrick’s Day parade for those who haven’t seen it. The best way I can describe it is if I call it an Irish version of the Chingay parade, but it’s still quite hard for people to imagine what it’s like, so the best thing to do is see one for yourself!

Guinness is bringing some St Patrick’s Day’s joy and merriment to Malaysia this 17 March. They gonna do it like they do it in the West, complete with pub parties, good food, fun contests and a Grand St Patrick’s Day Parade featuring bikers, buskers, cosplayers and Irish dancers all skipping down Changkat Bukit Bintang.

So it’s not like there’s nothing to celebrate in March. You just gotta
be merry.

The main St Patrick’s Festival is happening this coming Thursday 17 March at Changkat, but there are lots of opportunities to celebrate being a silly Irish at the many smaller parties happening all around the country including in Kuching. All the details are on the Guinness Facebook page!

And for those that can’t make it to ANY of those events, well… I suppose you can always put yourself and your friends in the shoes of the Irish dancers by playing a GigGag on them.

Silly, I know. But St Patrick’s Day is all about being silly and merry with friends. After all, life’s more fun when you don’t take it too seriously.

Ride a bike, do an Irish dance, play the GigGag. Go do something different.

Like I said, it’s the Irish spirit. And everyone can be Irish on the 17 March. That includes you, me…

And John Cena!