March 10, 2007
Do you need to find a four-leaf clover to obtain some extra luck in the month of March? There is another way to capture the luck of the Irish and that is to serve green food on St. Patrick’s Day, if you can stomach it that is.
Please understand I am not aware that this practice is an authentic Irish custom, just a slightly skewed dinner party idea.
Here is how the affair works. Have a St. Pat’s dinner and dye everything edible bright green. Then hope some of that good luck rubs off.
I can tell you that the green certainly rubs off, on your hands, especially if you dye your Irish soda bread bright green.
I speak from experience.
Once I attended one of these St. Pat’s all-green dinners. Not only were the creamed potatoes dyed green but also were the tapioca and ambrosia puddings, the cooked cabbage, the beer, the stew, and the Mulligatawny soup. When the slightly seasick guests left for home just after the green Bailey’s cheesecake, the Cadbury chocolates, and Irish coffee, many guests looked positively green themselves.
I avoided the green-squeamish-stomach syndrome that plagued the other guests by not looking at the food when I ate it. Closed my eyes and did not dare peek at the green corned beef. However, my fingers were unavoidably stained green at the outset after sampling the Leprechaun Wings and the Celtic popcorn zucchini. Most people had green lips as well from the Irish tea.
We were a sight.
If you try this dinner party at home, be of strong stomach.
Some others I know, good fortune seekers all, dye their scrambled eggs bright green in order to have good luck on March 17th. Green eggs and ham for breakfast! It is this tradition not the children’s book of the same name that is said to bring good luck.
In my book, green eggs and ham require a stomach made of iron, as the saying goes.
When we were kids we never ate green food for good luck. We simply searched the yard for lucky four-leaf clovers because we knew that the shamrock or the clover or whatever one calls it is a lucky plant, adored in Irish folklore.
The four leaves are said to stand for faith, hope, love and luck, but it was luck that interested us most.
Lucky indeed was the kid who found the “seamrog”, Gaelic for shamrock. Not many found one however because our teachers reminded us that for every 10,000 three-leaf clovers there would be only one of the four-leaf variety. Finding that “needle in a haystack” was certain to bring the lucky child a pot o’ good luck or maybe even a pot o’ gold, or so we dreamed.
Besides looking for a lucky Shamrock, another great Irish tradition I like is the practice of making toasts for health, wealth and happiness. Most everyone knows some Irish toasts by heart. You may remember these:
May the road rise up to meet you. May the wind be always at your back.
May the luck of the Irish lead to happiest heights, and the highway you travel be lined with green lights.
May the saddest day of your future be no worse than the happiest day of your past.
And after all if you’re lucky enough to be Irish, you’re lucky enough!
I will take four-leaf clovers and Irish toasts any day over green cocktail shrimp and mint cheese balls.
