When living in a foreign country, it is sometimes difficult to get into the spirit of a holiday the same way you do when living in the culture you were raised in. Some holidays are not celebrated in the same way. Some holidays are on different dates. Some just don't exist at all.
Take Mother's Day as an example. Norwegians celebrate Mother's Day on Valentine's Day (February 14th.) Brits, who make up the largest part of the ex-pat population here, celebrated Mother's Day this past weekend. We Americans don't celebrate it until May (oddly, about the same time as Norwegians have their National Day on May 17th.)
Since there is so much cultural confusion with holidays (and don't even get me started on the differences in how we celebrate Easter and the way it is celebrated here), it is sometimes difficult to get into the true "spirit" of the holiday. Kind of like celebrating Christmas in the summer weather of South Africa - it just sometimes doesn't "feel" like the holiday.
St. Patrick's Day is usually a fun little holiday, especially for those of us with Irish heritage. There doesn't seem to be a lot of awareness of the holiday here, though. I was probably the only person at school (besides Sidney) wearing green because it was St. Patrick's Day today. Many of the Norwegians in Kimber's office didn't even know that today was St. Patrick's Day.
Yet there was some saving grace to the day. "Spirit of the Dance" was in town to perform, and Kimber and I were able to go see the show. It was kind of nice to go on St. Patrick's Day and watch some Irish dancing and listen to a little Irish music. The performance was impressive (especially the rapid costume changes!) Since it was a school night, Sidney stayed home with Andrea, one of Kimber's co-workers, and was in bed by the time we arrived home.
And just a little bit more about the day - I was able to watch a few minutes of the St. Patrick's Day parade from Savannah, Georgia, on the CNN website this afternoon before we left. Unfortunately, there was no green beer to be had here!
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