SURVEY SAYS: Were You Wearing Green on St. Patty’s Day?

This week I asked readers if they wore green in honor of the occasion – and you know what? 

Nearly three-quarters (71.8%) said that they did – and an additional 2% said they did – but “not where anyone could see it (we’ll leave that to your imagination).  At least one reader noted, “I’m always wearing green. (tattoos count, right?)”

There were some who not only DIDN’T wear green, they wore….well:

Those of us of Irish Protestant descent are wearing orange today.

Wearing red!  Where did the green come into play anyway?

When I was a child I always wore orange to school on St. Patrick’s Day.  I don’t think I knew what the symbolism was, I just liked to be contrary.

I’m wearing green because of my early training — you had to wear green to avoid getting pinched.  However, I also wear orange because my Grandmother insisted that green was the wrong color of my kind of Irish!

For some it wasn’t about the color, it was about…

All I had a was green necklace that was appropriate for work :o)

I love green, but for some reason I do not have any green clothes appropriate for the workplace.

I thought about putting on something green this morning, but I don’t own any clothing that’s green.

There were a lot of fun comments, as you might expect.  Here’s a sampling:

And proud to be an Irishman.  Have a great day, thanks for all you do for us.

Alas laddie, me many plants t'were a wishin' it were on me t'umbs.

I generally avoid wearing any expected holiday color (red/green for christmas, orange for halloween, green for St. Patrick's Day).  However, I did wear my shamrock earrings that I've had for too many years to mention.  The first St. Patty's Day event I ever wore them to was the parade in Southie (So. Boston).  They were quite the hit with everyone, and I've worn them every March 17th since.

But by accident, even though I have some Irish family history, I don't go out of my way to wear green on this day.

and I'm IRISH!

Everyone expects me to be Irish but I'm not.

Wearing just a tad of green - in about the same ratio as the amount of Irish blood in me!

My Mother’s maiden name is McDaniel, my Dad's family is Welsh-Irish, I am of Irish descent everyday.

I am wearing green but it's pure happenstance. Now that I'm no longer in college or early 20's and no longer hit the bars every weekend, I've lost touch with the favorite annual drinking holidays. I know, I'm so boring, but I figured I had to grow up some day or I would have burnt out all my brain cells by the age of 30!"

I missed getting my green bagel today!

Irish Red

My boss is very Irish and it is in the best interest of my job that he sees me wearing green. I also make sure I run the NCAA pool as well as he likes to participate, and which he has won a couple of times.

But these were MY favorites:

“…and due to my difficulty in adapting to DST, I also wore green yesterday because I was half asleep getting ready for work. Since I am 5 ft tall, people may think I am turning into a leprechaun because of the daily "wearin' o' the green". Good thing I work from home tomorrow.”

“I'm 100% Irish (as far as I know) and I'd have to be pinched if I wasn't wearing green!”

“When you're the real thing (Irish American here), you don't need to engage in the let's pretend fantasy of "I'm wearing green so I'm Irish today." You can just skip that, and go for the beer.”

“I have green eyes, so green is a daily thing for me...however, with a last name like Donnelly and my strong resemblance to my Irish grandmother, wearing shamrocks today is pretty much a given for me.”

And this week’s Editor’s Choice goes to the reader who apparently wasn’t wearing green, and noted “If some female wants to pinch an old, fat, balding man of Eastern European descent, then it will be the highlight of my day.”

Thanks to everyone who participated in our survey!