Overthinking Overdrinking: St. Paddy’s Purim

An Interfaith perspective on St. Patrick’s Day and Purim. I raise a glass to all my readers, be they Pagan, Catholic, Jewish, or none of the above. Let’s drink and be merry together regardless.

Archimedes' Fulcrum

Sometimes it is hard to explain one’s interfaith background. Sometimes it causes confusion in a synagogue when you forget to take off your Celtic cross necklace, though to be fair, in my experience, more people understand the significance of tzitzit at a Pagan Pride festival than on the street in Providence. 

Sometimes, however, it is just plain awesome. And this year is one such time. 

This year, Purim, the drunken celebration often called ‘the Jewish Halloween,’ which commemorates yet another failed attempt to exterminate, convert, or otherwise make Jewishness not happen, comes just one day before St. Patrick’s Day, the most well-known and pervasively-celebrated Catholic saint’s day in Protestant-swarmed America. And being Jewish and of Irish extraction… well, pass the Manischewitz and the Guinness, bhoys, it’s shaping up to be a helluva weekend! 

Now, I for one appreciate the fact that St. Patrick’s Day is celebrated by Irish and non-Irish…

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