ChaChaGirls

I am no expert on St. Patrick’s Day, but it helps break up the month of March and I am always looking for a reason to celebrate.

The Irish have generously shared their patron saint, St. Patrick, with us and welcomed us into their pubs across the United States. No other holiday appears to be as tolerant of others as St. Patrick’s Day. Our only requirement is to wear green clothing, and have a willingness to toast and drink with the Irish. In America, we wear green so we don’t get pinched, which is just a silly tradition. But, we also punch people when we see a Volkswagen Beetle, so we are easily amused. Some people say that we wear green because Ireland is nicknamed the Green Isles. In Ireland, they wear the colors from the flag which is Green for the Catholics, Orange for the Protestants and the White for the peace between them.

I can remember as a youth searching for the mysterious four leaf clover or shamrock! While many like to claim a mythical explanation for the existence of four-leaf clovers, a simple genetic mutation is the real cause. According to legend, on a four-leaf clover, each leaf stands for something. One leaf symbolizes hope, one is for faith, another for love, and the fourth is, of course, for luck. Some people are just born lucky, but my dad used to say - and I think he stole the line from Benjamin Franklin- “The harder you work, the luckier you get.” For example, when I played golf in my youth and I would make a 20ft putt, my friends would say, “You am so lucky” but in reality, I practice 20ft putts for more than an hour a day for a week. We all know inherently lucky people, maybe they found a Shamrock, which is hard to do, as it is estimated that there is only 1 out of every 10,000 clovers!

One of the things that the Irish are known for are their great toasts. You may even remember some of the limericks from the movie Cocktail starring Tom Cruise as an Irish bartender. There are so many Irish Blessings that it is worthy of a google search for a good laugh. I enjoyed this one very much:

There are 4 things you must never do: lie, steal, cheat, or drink.
But if you must lie, lie in the arms of the one you love.
If you must steal, steal away from bad company.
If you must cheat, cheat death.
And if you must drink, drink in the moments that take your breath away...
Brianne Kelly Darragh


For those Irish brides or ChaChaGirls out there, I would love to know a toast you used at your wedding or at a birthday party. The best one will earn a green ChaChaBella ring, as that is a must wear on St. Patrick’s Day!

Contact Suzanne, where my non-Irish eyes are always smiling, at S@chachabella.com.