Going green

Holiday brings color, festivities to campus

In addition to the dozens of sesame and poppy seed bagels that usually fill its shelves, Einstein Bros. Bagels located on State Street offered green bagels to its customers yesterday - a sign that many students were caught up in St. Patrick's Day celebrations.

"Green bagels have swept across the nation on St. Patrick's Day. Irish people are excellent and they deserve green bagels on Wednesday," said Stephen Nadell, an Einstein's Bros. Bagels employee, jokingly.

DANA LINNANE/Daily Ashley's employees Jason Matter, an Art and Design senior, Diana Christoff, University alum and Bonnie Malcz, an LSA senior, greet guests with St. Patrick's Day charm at the State street location yesterday.

But Nadell said some customers were turned off by the green bagels, which they think are not visually pleasing.

"Some of the girls that come in are hesitant to try the green ones," Nadell said. "But the guys don't care what the bagel looks like."

Touchdown Cafe, which opened at 7 a.m. yesterday, also featured green-colored food items, including popular green-tinted beer. General Manager Julie Hazimi said the green-colored beverages were in high demand all day.

"If it's green, the customers are willing to drink it," Hazimi said.

Touchdown also gave away free holiday paraphernalia - many T-shirts, hats, garter belts, tattoos and glow-in-the-dark buttons.

Dental first-year student Neha Dalal wore her green hat from Touchdown while walking around campus. Dalal was at the cafe two hours after its early morning opening.

"The place was crazy and wild. People were screaming and yelling," Dalal said.

Dalal said religious and ethnic reasons didn't motivate her to celebrate St. Patrick's Day.

"I'm anything but Irish. I don't even know the meaning of the holiday. I just love to wear green," she said.

The holiday is celebrated March 17 each year because it is the day when Patrick, the patron Saint of Ireland, died in 493 A.D. According to his autobiography, Saint Patrick was kidnapped at age 16 and sold into slavery in Ireland. He escaped to Britain and later returned to Ireland, converting the island from Druidism to Christianity.

The three-leafed shamrock - a common symbol of St. Patrick's Day - is found in the artwork of the Celt tribe to symbolize the divine nature of the trinity. The symbol was later worn by the Irish regiments and became the emblem of rebellion in the 19th Century. England's Queen Victoria outlawed the symbol, making it punishable by death by hanging. Today's "wearing of the green" was translated from shamrocks to wearing green clothes in the United States.

Father Charles Irvin of St. Mary's Catholic Church in Ann Arbor said the holiday does not have the same political significance it once had.

"In the 1800s, a huge number of Irish immigrants wanted to show that they were a significant group in America," Irvin said, adding that the Irish are no longer discriminated against like they were when large numbers of them first immigrated to the U.S.

"Saint Patrick's Day is now celebrated like St. Valentine's Day in the United States," Irvin said.

LSA first-year student Andrew Shirvell said when he was in Catholic school he wore green on St. Patrick's Day every year.

"This year I decided not to wear green," Shirvell said. "I actually feel a bit guilty, though, that I'm not wearing green."

Members of the Students' Party, who are running in the Michigan Student Assembly and LSA Student Government elections next week, wore green shirts as they passed out campaign fliers on the Diag yesterday. LSA sophomore Brian Reich said that for the past three years St. Patrick's Day has coincided with elections.

"We think it's a fun and festive way to recognize the holiday and to draw attention towards our party," Reich said.

The Pierpont Commons Program Board on North Campus used the holiday to its advantage. The group hosted a jazz concert featuring jazz musicians from the School of Music last night at Leonardo's. All proceeds from the event will go to a scholarship fund for students with disabilities.

Music junior Ben Yonas, the program's chair, said the group wanted to do more than just hand out green candy and carnations and traditionally likes to hold events on holidays.

"Our musicians really wanted to donate their services for one night," Yonas said. "We also felt that people would be more inclined to donate their money to a good cause on a holiday."

03-18-99