"E pur si muove."

After being forced to recant his belief that the Earth revolved around the Sun by the Inquisition, Galileo was rumored to have muttered the phrase "E pur si muove." "And yet it moves." This was his rejection of the conventional wisdom at the time - that the Earth was the stationary center of the universe - which we now know to have been most spectacularly false.

While not the sole topic of this blog, much of what I write revolves around this theme - that the conventional wisdom is often flawed, and that all lies, inexorably, must eventually lead to the truth.

Sometimes I write because I have something to say; others, simply because I find it helpful to see my ideas written out; occasionally it's to see if one of my hair brained ideas actually holds any water. Either way, I hope you'll enjoy at least a few of my fairly random rants! If you care to read more about my motivations behind starting this blog, please click here. Feel free to on any of my posts; your feedback is always greatly appreciated.

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Tabhair póg dom, táim Éireannach!

Originally Posted: March 17th, 2008

This one pretty much speaks for itself. ;)

Okay, so I'm sure most of you celebrated St. Patrick's Day on SATURDAY... And sure, I went out on Saturday. Didn't wear my green, and didn't even end up at the bar for very long (haha, as Jorge can attest to) due to the congestion, crazy police raids, and crazy combination of Saturday & St. Patrick's Day celebrating... But I was out. HOWEVER, today is the day you should be celebrating, if any...

...unless we're talking about going to mass here. Then yeah. You should have been in church on Saturday. If you're Catholic, you probably realized that the Church moved the Feast Day from March 17th, to March 15, in order to accommodate "Holy Week" (the last week before Easter). I suppose this makes sense if you're a practicing Catholic, going to mass on both Saturday for the feast day and Holy Monday (today). One should also note that the decision to move the feast day was an entirely liturgical decision.

In Ireland, though the Catholic diocese all celebrated St. Patrick's Day on March 15th, secular and other celebrations (read: libations) have all remained unchanged, and will be held TODAY. The St. Patrick's Day parade in Dublin was today. People in Ireland had a work holiday, TODAY.

So why all this confusion? Well, there are 2 sides to St. Patrick's Day. The religious side, if you're a Catholic; and the celebration of national pride, if you're not. The holiday has become far more than a feast day over the years - so much so that there are even Orangemen from Ulster parading in the streets today.

I for one think it's nice that for once, people can celebrate the two sides separately; Church for mass on Saturday, Pub for pints on Monday, and back to work on Tuesday. Being the cynical agnostic and/or non-practicing-secular-Anglican (read non-practicing-secular-Episcopalian for all you Americans) that I am, I for one, will be celebrating with the rest of my countrymen TODAY.

*Raises his pint of Guinness* So here's to your health! Sláinte chugat!

St. Patrick's Day blessings upon you. Beannachtaí na Féile Pádraig oraibh.
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