How do you celebrate St. Patricks day?

Today is St Patricks day and our founder Herminas' Birthday. While we are searching our closets for something green here are a few points about St. Patrick, plus a something about Hermina you may not have known.

• St. Patrick had been kidnapped and enslaved in Ireland as a 16 year old
• He escaped after 6 years and went home to become a priest.
• As a priest he returned to Ireland to convert the pagans.
• He may have used the triple leafed shamrock to explain the Holy Trinity 
• Visitors were welcomed into St Patricks community. Conversion to Christianity was not a requirement for membership but often happened  after they spent time sharing the work and meals, and through conversations with St Patrick and the community.
  

Hermina and I spent 5 years living in Dublin, Ireland. The people we met were lovely, warm and friendly. It was a wonderful place for me to spend most of my teenage years. It was also where Hermina got her Cidesco Zurich certificate in Skincare.

My mom Hermina gave me my first drink when we lived in Ireland, a very watered-down whisky sour. She even let me go out with friends and my cousin Patrick to our first pub crawl, at  just 16 years old. He and I stayed relatively sober, still had an interesting time and took the bus home. 

The biggest St Patricks Day Celebration Hermina and I every saw was held in New York City. Bigger than the one in Dublin. My friend Jen had chuckled at how big a deal St. Pats was for the Americans. Apparently the Irish don't need a reason to celebrate, drink beer and wear green. 

.

Tuscany Spa will celebrate St Patricks day by wishing Herminas a happy birthday with a card, signed by all of us, and a treat. (sshhh its a surprise, don't tell her.) Then her grandkids will give her the best gift of all, hugs and kisses.

 

But today everyone gets to be Irish. So when you drink your Guinness, or Harp, or my favorite Smithwicks Ale (pronounced Smit-tiks, the H is silent) send out a Happy Birthday to Hermina with your St Patricks day cheer. 

How will you be celebrating your Irishness today?

Cheers and happy Birthday Mom. 

Michelle G. Lathe

Visit BlogHer.Com and follow my fellow March NaBloPoMo Bloggers

p.s. Did not become a whisky sour fan. The only one I have every liked is that very watered down version that was a great deal more sour than whisky.