Co-opting o' the Irish

This year Easter is less than a week after St. Patrick's Day. Although the former pertains to an entire religion (and arguably should be the most important holiday in that religion) while the latter is more or less merely a national holiday—for another country than this one. As a sheer numbers game, the former should be what more people would consider the best theme for a celebration.

At my place of employment, every year around this time, there is held a little party honoring some people who are essentially interns and who are leaving. The theme of said party is always St. Patrick's Day. Well, the decoration are green and shamrocky (inasmuch as that's an adjective). There's beer, although not necessarily Irish beer (maybe so, maybe not); it may or may not be dyed green. Beyond that, the theme is stretched thin. The fare served is not traditional Irish dishes but conventional cocktail foods. (One year it was actually Mexican-esque items, such as taquitos, where the tortillas had been colored green. I wish I were kidding.)

My point is not to criticize the questionable authenticity of the celebration, however. (Hey, free beer is free beer. And I like taquitos.) It's merely interesting how there's no stigma associated with co-opting Irish stereotypes for events that, when one gets down to it, have nothing to do with actually honoring St. Patrick. I'm not saying that's good or bad; it's simply something that does not significantly offend anyone. (Free beer is free beer.)

This year, the party could be postponed a week and the theme switched to Easter. As I mentioned at the top, that is conceivably a bigger deal to a larger portion of people. Except, of course, that would likely offend the crap out of certain people. However, I don't think it's merely avoiding causing offense that prevents Easter from being a suitable party theme.

What color is a caterer supposed to dye the taquitos? If one goes with the cutesy bunny pattern, that would go toward the pastel color range. Those colors aren't bold enough. Sure, there's plenty of Easter candy options, but the obvious Easter activity (the egg hunt) holds less appeal for adults than does the aforementioned free beer.

If one goes with a strict interpretation (the resurrection of Jesus)… what colors are associated with that? And let's not even consider what décor such a theme might demand.

It's not so much that St. Patrick's Day eschews complaints from the religious (or the non-religious), and it's not so much that St. Patrick's Day has more of an adult party association. While those are certainly true, the real appeal of St. Patrick's Day (from the standpoint of organizing a party): it's easy. And no matter how much one may fail to keep it authentic, no one complains about free beer, no matter how unappealingly green the food has been dyed.

We seem like a society that is limited due to fear of litigation, but when you dig down you see: we're really just kind of lazy.