gwax's rumblings

Saint Patrick’s Day, 2008 is not on March 17^th as usual but, rather, on March 15^th. This shift is because March 17^th falls dur­ing the Christian Holy Week. The Roman Catholic Church moves Saint Patrick’s Day when­ever it coin­cides with the Holy Week, a coin­ci­dence which last occurred in 1940 and will next occur in 2160.

In quickly polling around, it seems as though very few peo­ple are aware of the date shift. In fact, even my wall cal­en­dar has the date wrong. Don’t get me wrong, I like a good drink­ing hol­i­day as much as the next per­son but if you’re going to hijack a hol­i­day and use it for drink­ing, you really should do the hijack­ing correctly.

Drinking on the wrong day makes the as-yet-unressurrected baby Jesus cry. Don’t do it!