Whether Irish dancing in bars, racing around Portland or studying abroad in Ireland, students find ways to celebrate St. Patrick's Day.
Rebekah Markillie |
Bar dancing
From her childhood years through high school, senior Sarah Mattcheck was dancing in bars. As a member of the choreography team at the Portland Irish Dance Academy, she would be invited to perform routines at Kell’s Irish Restaurant & Pub with her dance group.
“We called it the choreography team and we would go around and dance for nursing homes, schools and then bars, that was big,” Mattcheck said.
The choreography team would do monthly performances at Kell’s and over St. Patrick’s Day weekend they were there all the time.
“It made us feel really cool when we were high school that we were in a bar,” she said.
To abide by liquor laws, Kell’s would set up a little place for the team in the corner away from the rest of the bar. They also gave the dancers free fries.
“Kell’s really treated us well. They were really good about keeping people contained, keeping the stage clear because drunk people would always want to jump up on the stage - that was always kind of funny. It’s really cool to be a part of this culture,” Mattcheck said.
Whenever Mattcheck goes to Kell’s now that she’s of age, the atmosphere is sentimental.
“I still walk into Kell’s now that I’m 21 and you just smell the stale beer and fries and I’m like ah! These are good memories!” Mattcheck said.
Shamrock run
It was junior Jennifer Rillamas first time running a 5K race on Sunday morning at the Portland Shamrock Run and she had been training since October.
“Oh, I was so proud of myself,” Rillamas said.
According to her Nike+ running app, she ran her fastest 5K at 28:07. placing 37 out of 558 in the women’s 18-24 age bracket.
The Shamrock Run is a 5K, 8K or 15K annual run that starts in Waterfront Park and goes through downtown. The race is popular, selling out with 35,000 participants five years in a row.
In the past Rillamas and one of her friends had wanted to participate in the event but never got around to actually signing up.
“This year I was like ‘I’m taking matters into my own hands and I’m going to do it!’” she said.
On Monday at school when she was wearing the t-shirt from the Shamrock Run, a few of her friends commented that they disappointed they hadn’t gone.
“After I did it a lot of my friends were like, ‘Oh I wish I had signed up, we’re totally going to do it next year!’” Rillamas said.
Next year Rillamas hopes to participate again.
“It’s a great Portland tradition,” she said.
Irish St. Patty’s Day
Celebrating St. Patrick’s Day was one of the things sophomore Erin Von Hoetzendorff was looking forwards to most during her semester abroad in Galway, Ireland. Since it’s a national holiday students had the day off from school.
“In Galway its a weekend long event,” Von Hoetzendorff said. “There is a festival from the (March) 15-18 and on actual St. Patrick’s day there is a parade that goes through town and people go out all day long.”
The parade was about an hour long in the late morning.
“There were a lot of local school marching bands. There were some floats that had karate schools on them and there were kids doing karate on the floats,” Von Hoetzendorff said.
When they returned from the parade, sophomore Molly Kerns cooked the UP group one of her family traditions.
“Her family has the tradition of making chocolate toast witches, they’re basically like grilled cheese but instead of cheese it’s chocolate,” Von Hoetzendorff said. “She made them for everyone in the group and that was really cool.”
Like major holidays here, shops will advertise the holiday weeks in advance with ridiculous St. Patrick’s Day themed costumes.
“Oh god, they had these footie pajamas basically, but it was a full leprechaun suit,” Von Hoetzendorff said. “And me and a few friends, we jokingly put it on and were like ‘Oh this would be really funny to buy for St. Patrick’s Day’ but none of us did. But we saw someone wearing it (on Monday) and I was super excited. It came with a hood and attached was a beard, it was literally head to toe leprechaun - it was great.”
