Every year a peculiar holiday falls on March 17. That’s right, it’s St. Patrick’s Day where students are decked out in whatever green they were able to rummage out of their closet. So, how do Witt students celebrate the holiday?
St. Patty’s day originated as a dedication to Ireland’s foremost patron saint, Saint Patrick. This man lived quite the life and helped convert the country to Christianity. Due to his converting of the Irish population, St. Patrick is said to have driven all the snakes out of Ireland. The snakes referred back to the former religious leaders, the druids. Furthermore, Saint Patrick supposedly used a three-leaf clover to show the Holy Trinity. This is the reason that green is used for the holiday.
Witt students seemed lost on what St. Patrick’s Day celebrated.
Kaylee Flaws, ’21, stated, “to be honest, the answer would be I don’t know.”
Flaws wasn’t the only one it was lost upon as Hai Vo, ’20, said St. Patrick’s Day is, “just a fun day to celebrate with friends… I don’t know what it would be, but we’re celebrating.”
Like many other high party weekends, Wittenberg held different late-night activities to try and combat the high population of partygoers. These activities included turning rooms in the Student Center into escape rooms, roller skating in the HPER and trivia based around “green” for St. Patty’s day.
An anonymous student gave me a recount of his day and what St. Patty’s day looked like for many students. Their day started bright and early at 8 in the morning with a run to Speedway for alcohol. From here, the student concocted mimosas—a drink made from a mixture of orange juice and champagne—and drank them in the company of friends. This lasted till about noon.
After noon, the student played Euchre with friends. After taking a bit of a break, the student then participated in the house crawl for two of the houses. They commented that the houses were really crowded. After this stage of partying, the student made their way to the CDR for dinner. After eating and taking another short break where the student played Fortnite, the student went back out to celebrate at a friend’s birthday party. The student then went home and relaxed with friends.
When this student was asked what the meaning of St. Patrick’s Day is, he responded, “It is to enjoy an excuse to drink… It’s a fun opportunity for campus to come together.”
Across campus, students began the day by placing on their green attire. Some of these things included: a normal t-shirt, beaded necklaces, ribbons for hair, bandannas, Boston Celtic’s jerseys and huge St. Patrick’s Day glasses. CDR employees joined in on the fun, rocking green necklaces and top hats. The CDR was filled with green throughout the day.
However, while Wittenberg may try to combat it, many still went out to enjoy the festivities. Like every other year, there was a house crawl. For a house crawl, students make their way through various campus houses—all precisely scheduled—partying. After the time comes for students to switch houses, they make their way to the new house by foot, hence the house crawl. Students body to body dancing and moving about and listening to pop music. Like all parties, there is a lot of yelling and a lot of bad dance moves on display. On top of this, alcohol seemed to flow endlessly as students made their way to make shift bars to refill their drinks for the day.
Furthermore, across campus there were many obviously drunk students walking about. They reeked of marijuana and were a mess. They were cluttered with broken glass from beer bottles, Natty Lite cans, containers from Jell-O shots and St. Patrick’s Day garb. The day was wild.
After a long day of partying or spending time at the Witt Late Night activities, students made their way back to their rooms and crashed for the evening. The sidewalks were filled with noise until late in the evening and finally ended with silence across the evening.
From these recounts, it is clear that many students all throughout campus enjoyed their St. Patrick’s Day and filled the day in many different ways.
