St. Patrick’s Day and Other Mid-March Events

[SawyerTed]

Of course Saint Patrick's Day is the celebration of all things Irish and Ireland but more specifically the celebration of Christianity arriving in Ireland. 

Then there's the Ides of March, the middle of March, now infamous for the date of assassination of Jules Ceasar in 44BC.  

More locally there's the legend of Old Quork or Old Quark in the village of Ocracoke.  Apparently, Quork was a loner who lived a short distance from the village.  He had a small sailing skiff for fishing.  On March 16 he was determined to take his skiff fishing despite the threatening weather.   He went in disregard of the other fishermen.  He disappeared without a trace in a big blowing storm that day.  

March 16 is recognized as Old Quork's Day on Ocracoke.  Is there something about Mid March?  Is it the doldrums of winter?  Or just another way to pry money out of people's pockets?  

Are there local legends in your vicinity that correspond with Mid-March?  

[barbender]

Well I was talking about all of the Finns up here, they have St. Urho's day, which iirc is a made up holiday to compete with the Irish

[barbender]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Urho

My BIL married a nice Finnish girl with the maiden name Yrjanainen (Eer-ya-nye-nen- when someone would ask her grandmother how that was spelled, she would say, "well, just like it sounds"). Her Grandpa Waino, who came from Finland as a young man, spoke much like the language in the "Ode to St Urho". I met him at their wedding, and considering that he was almost 20 when he came to Wisconsin from Finland, his English was very good. It didn't sound any different than any of the other old Finns that were born here😊

I remember him telling me, "I-uh use-ta have-a friend up in-ah Hip-ping (Hibbing)"

I told him, when I saw him in all dressed up for the wedding, "you know, for an old Finlander you don't clean up too bad!" He said, "if I-ah had-a kor-ter I'd-a give it to you!"

He was a neat guy.

[Magicman]

No celebration here.  I'll be sawing. 

[Raider Bill]

We celebrated yesterday at an Italian wake
Today I have a Irish hangover.
Tonight, corned beef and cabbage.

[Chuck White]

I celebrate St Patricks day moreso for personal reasons!
On March 14,1995 I had a heart attack, and on the 17th I had an angioplasty to fix it, that was 30 years ago.
On meds every since, with no issues!
Oh, I did have corned beef and cabbage with my brother and SIL yesterday.