Holland and St. Patrick's Day

St. Patrick's Day parade in Dublin, Ireland part of a five-day festival; over 500,000 people attended the 2006 parade. The largest St. Patrick's Day parade is held in New York City and it is watched by over 2 million spectators. The St. Patrick's Day parade was first held in Boston in 1761, organized by the Charitable Irish Society. New York's celebration began on 18 March 1762 when Irish soldiers in the British army marched through the city.[citation needed] The predominantly French-speaking Canadian city of Montréal, in the province of Québec has the longest continually running Saint Patrick's day parade in North America, since 1824.[4] The city's flag has the Irish emblem, the shamrock, in one of its corners. Ireland's cities all hold their own parades and festivals. These cities include Dublin, Cork, Belfast, Derry, Galway, Kilkenny, Limerick, and Waterford. Parades also take place in other Irish towns and villages.
--Wikipedia

I was eating at a restaurant in which one of my friends works, and a couple under 65 sat at the table next to me. The language they were speaking sounded familiar to me, but as I have noticed about many European visitors to San Francisco, in public, they speak very softly. About ten minutes past, and my friend came over just as I asked the couple, "Spreek je Nederlans (sp)? It turns out that they did, and we started talking about how much I love Holland and how I lived in Groningen for a while and etc.

Eventually I told them that I have an E.U. passport given to me by the country of Eire, or Ireland. So, they had just been to the St. Patrick's Day Parade in San Francisco today. Now, they asked me, since you're Irish, can you tell just who is Saint Patrick?

I am such a complete space. When I was at the university, I almost studied Gaelic. But today I couldn't remember who St. Patrick "was." I told them some b.s. and got St. Patrick mixed up with--I think it is--Saint George...and I've been studying Hinduism and Buddhism and have forgotten alot about Christianity.

There must be common knowledge to every culture, I suppose. I'll remember who Bobby Sands was before I'll be able to tell anyone about why San Francisco and other other cities have parades for Saint Patrick of Ireland.

I told them I thought the holiday was just another commercial one for the U.S. They agreed, and then they said that Irish dancing is commercial. I'm not sure I agree with that. Dance is a form of art that transcends commercialism. The Dutch are well-known for their incredible painters: Van Gogh, Rembrandt, de Kooning. The Irish are well-known for their contributions to music and performance. I just told them, " Ireland doesn't have much of an economy." and they said it was--to them--a place that was still backward. No wonder I couldn't remember who St. Patrick is supposed to be.