It comes only once a year... a day filled with unnecessary amounts of beer and green clothing: St. Patrick's Day.St Patrick's Day is renowned in North America and most parts of Europe, however little if any people are truly familiar with the day of the Irish in South America. Case in point: Colombia.
Like any prepared partier, I was asking my Colombian friends what their plans were for Thurs March 17th... with a puzzled look they asked me why. My jaw dropped. Why? Because it's St Patrick's Day, and we need to go out and celebrate. Still... blank faces. I then filled them in and explained what St Patrick's Day is and how popular it is in North America and Europe. I explained that it is necessary to wear green clothing, and it's basically an excuse to drink.
After explaining the significance of March 17th, I was able to easily gather some people who wanted to celebrate. (You don't have to ask a Colombian twice if they want to party). So after work we headed to none other than Parque Lleras (the bar district in El Poblado) for some celebratory St Pattys Day drinks.
Our initial plan was to go to what seemed to be one of the only Irish Pubs in Medellín, however the prices for beers were stupidly expensive, so we opted for $3.000 peso alcoholic slushies instead (around $1.50 CDN). The beauty of South America is that it is perfectly legal to drink in the streets. So that's exactly what we did. In a large group of about 10 people, we sat in Parque Lleras and just hung out, chatting in both Spanish and English and enjoying each other's company (in green attire of course!).
It is definitely a lot of fun to pass along different cultural traditions to people who have never experienced them before... and even though Im not Irish, St Patrick's Day remains to be a highly celebrated Canadian tradition. So why not pass it along? :)
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