A Movable Feast

In high school I once filled out a form that asked for my specific ethnic identity. I could have picked Irish, which would have been close enough, but instead I wrote in Mixed Western European. I was only 3/8 Irish, as far as I could figure out.

My father, who is 3/4 Irish, was outraged, or at least pretended to be, and has been harassing me about it ever since. Just tonight, in an email, he told my extended family that if anyone needed to know the date for St. Patrick's Day, they could try asking me.

Well... I showed him. It turns out the Irish are celebrating it on a different day this year. March 15th instead of 17th.

Under the Church's rules, the General Norms for the Liturgical Year and Calendar, the saint's feast day does not rank as high as the Monday before Easter and has to be moved.

Spoilsport priests
Have moved the feast,
But beer consumption will not decrease.