Party Hearty for St. Paddy’s Day

In Ireland, St. Patrick’s Day is a religious holiday, one that is often spent going to Mass or taking part in a small neighborhood parade. However, because the holiday occurs during Lent, it is often considered a “free pass” day, meaning that whatever was given up for Lent (e.g., drinking) can be indulged on March 17. Although many of the things we do in America to celebrate St. Paddy’s Day—eating corned beef and cabbage, holding Irish Elvis parades, discussing leprechauns, wearing head-to-toe green—didn’t originate with the Irish, we do share the tradition of drinking on this day. Since the only praying most Americans do on March 17 is to the porcelain god (a.k.a, the toilet) here are a few party ideas that are secular and not at all Irish, but do honor our joint cultural tradition of a good swill or two.

Limerick Contest
Limericks are five-sentence poems with an aabba rhyming scheme. They usually have funny or sexual undertones, making them party favorites. Limerick is also the name of a city in Western Ireland—thus, these poems are perfect for St. Patrick’s Day.

Give all your guests a piece of paper and pen, and five minutes to write a limerick. Toss them in a bowl, read aloud, and vote on the best one. Winner receives a bottle of Irish whiskey or gold-wrapped chocolates.

Pub Crawl/Photo Scavenger Hunt
Photo scavenger hunts are a fun variation on a traditional pub-crawl. You’ll need at least two or three teams of four or five people, a list of stunts, and as many digital cameras as there are teams. 

Choose four to five bars that are in walking distance of each other. Make a list of stunts or activities that the teams can accomplish in a two- to three-hour period. These can be things like drinking from the tap behind a bar, arm wrestling a drunk, taking a picture with a person from Ireland, sipping an Irish coffee, finding a four-leaf clover, etc.

Document the activity by taking a picture. After the bar crawl, convene at a house or bar and upload pictures onto the computer. As a group, decide how many stunts each team completed; the team with the most stunts wins a bottle of whiskey, bragging rights, and the rest of the Irish stew.