St. Patrick's Day in Chengdu

Ok, so I have discovered something the Chinese admit to NOT inventing - St. Patrick’s Day! None of our team knows what this day is and why it is a celebration. We received rather odd looks when we had to admit that we really don’t know the history of the day (sorry) other than it’s a day for drinking and befriending anybody and everybody. I guess if you have to have a holiday then drinking beer and making new friends is as good an excuse as any.


After several weeks of dreary, cold, grey, and often wet weather, it was a most pleasant surprise to wake up Saturday morning to about as blue of a sky as you can have here. The sun was more or less out, the breeze, soft and cool. The temperature around 60 degrees. Of course, the locals were still bundled under their layers of coats and sweaters, but I was in shirt sleeves and relishing the change. If it was October, I would have called it “Football Saturday.” Clearly, God wanted us to have a nice St Patty Day.

And we did.

For lunch, Low-Wei, Ronnie, and I met at The Shamrock. There had been a rumor they were serving Corned Beef and Cabbage. But alas, it turns out the Corned Beef wouldn’t be served until dinner. So we at Sichuan Pizza while sitting out on the patio, in the breeze, under the bluish skies, basking in the warm sun was actually the perfect early afternoon for us. We could have spent the entire afternoon there – and really thought about doing that. My bald head might have turned a small pinkish hue under the sun (gee, too bad for me). But I had a little errand to run for my nephew (who owes me BIG, I might add), so I left them there.

Later that evening, I joined them again across the street at a place called The Bookworm (a sort of Library Themed Bar). Ronnie and his vagabonds were going to play there later that evening, so around 07:30, the party began.

The local ex-Pat crowd came marching in with a full St. Patrick’s Parade all decked out in their Irish Finery including an Irish-Chinese Dragon, St. Patrick himself, one gentleman in full kilt regalia, Bagpipes booming over speakers, and every imaginable costume! I was inside talking to an old friend (one of the Chevron crowd) and almost missed the parade, so forgive the poor pictures.

Dinner was Irish Stew buffet. The crowd was so festive that the food line pretty much disintegrated and any thought of paying for dinner was lost on the Chinese staff and after that, food was pretty much a free event. Very rare for this country where EVERYTHING is paid for.

Ronnie and his guys played at 08:00 for about an hour and then was followed by another band until 10:00 at which point the party was moving back across the street to The Shamrock until all good Leprechauns either passed out, crawled out, or just disappeared with their bags of gold for another year.

Interestingly enough, right on the wall of the Bookworm was a poster of a poem by an old Chinese guy named Li Bai.  He may have lived some 2500 years ago and had no idea who or what St. Patrick would become, but his ideas certainly fit the spirit of St Patrick.  Scroll through the remianing pictures and then read his words.  (If you will click on the picture to enlarge, you can read it). 
I like this guy.  I may have to keep this one for myself.

St. Patrick’s Day in Chengdu. They didn’t invent it, but they can still enjoy it.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Peng Tao and Low-Wei

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

Peng Tao and Yours Truly

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Li Bai Poem