Akron bars celebrate St. Patty’s differently

Green beer. Green eggs. Green shamrocks.

St. Patrick’s Day was intended to be a traditional day for spiritual renewal and an offering of prayers for missionaries worldwide, according to Alphabet-soup.net. However, students celebrate the day by drinking green beer and eating green eggs.

Carrie Janickas, manager at the Irish bar Brubaker’s Pub in Akron, said the two-story bar will open at 5:30 a.m. to serve pancakes, sausage and green beer all day.

Kevin O’Bryan’s, another Irish pub in Akron, will have its own variation of music.

An Irish band will play from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m., manager Steve Kelly said.

The pub, designed in the typical traditional Irish style of wood and brick, will also open early at 9 a.m., serving eggs, Irish sausage and potatoes, Kelly said.

“It’s a big drinking day,” he said. “A lot of people like to come out and have a good time.”

While Brubaker’s is serving green beer all day, Neal Durigg, manager at Sullivan’s Irish Pub, said the pub will not serve green beer because it’s an American tradition, not Irish.

St. Patrick’s Day is celebrated in many different ways and has taken on many different meanings in American culture today since its beginning in 1737 in Boston.

Twenty-five years later, Irish soldiers marched on March 17 through the streets of New York City as they listened to Irish music in the first ever St. Patrick’s Day parade, according to historychannel.com. The first parade helped Irish soldiers serving in the English military reconnect with their Irish roots, as well as their fellow Irishmen.

However, Irish patriotism and the foundation of St. Patrick’s Day started well before the 18th century.

St. Patrick was born in Wales about 385 A.D. and was sold into slavery at the age of 16 by a group of Irish marauders that raided his village, according to Alphabet-soup.net. While in slavery, Patrick studied and turned to religion, becoming closer with God.

He later escaped slavery and returned to Ireland, determined to convert Ireland to Christianity.

Patrick traveled Ireland for 30 years establishing monasteries, schools and churches in his attempt to convert Ireland to Christianity, according to the site. He encountered many followers along his journey wearing shamrocks, which Patrick used in his sermons until his death on March 17, 461 A.D.

The day has been known as St. Patrick’s Day ever since.

Contact off-campus entertainment reporter Eddie Dilworth at [email protected].