It's too early for St. Patrick's Day but not too early to learn a bit of history....
WHY ST. PATRICK'S DAY IS CELEBRATED EACH YEAR IN IRELAND
The reason the Irish celebrate St. Patrick's Day is because this is when St. Patrick drove the Norwegians out of Ireland.
It seems that some centuries ago, many Norwegians came to Ireland to escape the bitterness of the Norwegian winter.
Ireland was having a famine at the time, and food was scarce. The Norwegians were eating almost all the fish caught in the area, leaving the Irish with nothing to eat but potatoes. St. Patrick, taking matters into his own hands, as most Irishmen do, decided the Norwegians had to go.
Secretly, he organized the Irish IRATRION (Irish Republican Army to Rid Ireland of Norwegians) and the Irish members of IRATRION passed a law in Ireland that prohibited merchants from selling ice boxes or ice to the Norwegians, in hopes that their fish would spoil. This would force the Norwegians to flee to a colder climate where their fish would keep.
Well, the fish spoiled, all right but, as every one knows today, the Norwegians thrive on spoiled fish. So, faced with failure, the desperate Irishmen sneaked into the Norwegian fish storage caves in the dead of night and sprinkled the rotten fish with lye, hoping to poison the Norwegian invaders.
But, as everyone knows, the Norwegians thought the lye only added to the flavor of the fish, and they liked it so much they decided to call it "lutefisk", which is Norwegian for "luscious fish".
Matters became even worse for the Irishmen when the Norwegians started taking over the Irish potato crop and making a bread substitute which they called "lefse."
Poor St. Patrick was at his wit's end, and finally on March 17th, he blew his top and told all the Norwegians to "GO TO HELL!"
So the Norwegians all got in their boats and emigrated to Minnesota ----the only other paradise on earth where smelly fish, old potatoes and plenty of cold weather can be found in abundance. So now you know why there are so many Norwegians in Minnesota and why the Irish celebrate March 17.
That's a super story, and I belive every word of it!
ReplyDeleteFargo was on TV a couple of days ago. Ya!
Me, too. It explains EVERYTHING except why some Norwegians stayed in Wisconsin on their way to Minnesota.
ReplyDeleteFrances McDermot nailed the Minnesota accent so accurately in that movie!
ReplyDeleteThey ran out of gas, M.E.? lol
ReplyDeleteGood thing or we wouldn't have that wonderful song:
My name is Yon Yonson
I come from Visconsin
I vork in da lumberyards dere
When I valk down da street
All da people I meet
say hey -- vat's your name?
And I say ...
My dad taught us that one and we would song it ad nauseum while driving to visit my mother's parents (German) in Wisconsin!
Peggy: get the movie "Laurel Canyon" and watch the opening credits closely. When the big airliner is landing in L.A., the name on the screen says FRANCES MCDORMAND. That's her. It's one of the wittiest screen credits ever.
ReplyDeleteKD: you gotta teach me the TUNE. that's a great song!