Although St. Patrick’s Day didn’t officially begin until Sunday, many began the celebration earlier. Groups of students, decked out in all shades of green from the shamrock antenna headbands atop their heads to the green socks on their feet, began streaming to house parties and bars early Saturday afternoon.
Alcoholic choices for the weekend stayed true to the Irish theme from pints of Guinness to homemade “shamrock juice,” a mix of Mountain Dew, Hawaiian punch and vodka.
Approximately 34.5 million people across the U.S. claim an Irish ancestry, according to CNN. But that doesn’t stop any and all from celebrating the boozy holiday.
“Everyone’s Irish on St. Patrick’s Day,” said Kate McDonald, a junior fashion merchandising major who celebrated the holiday with friends at the Locker Room on Sunday morning.
The tradition of drinking on St. Patrick’s Day stems from old Irish hospitality, according to Fred Suppe, an associate history professor who has a background in Celtic history. When people would host guests, especially during celebrations, they would provide food and drinks that included beer and mead.
When Irish immigrants moved to America, they brought St. Patrick’s Day with them, which had become a symbol of their culture. Cities such as New York, Chicago and Boston began hosting parades in honor of the holiday.
“Starting maybe a century ago or more, on St. Patrick’s Day people would participate in parades and then go to a pub to celebrate hospitality and drink to good health,” Suppe said.
Since then, the tradition of drinking on St. Patrick’s Day has expanded to more than just the Irish.
McDonald, Abbey Kollmeyer and Kristin Michels celebrated Saturday night in a crowded Village. They recalled Cleo’s being so packed that they could barely get to the bar; people unable to fit inside crowded outside the door. There was even a wait to get on the Silo Bus, something they said was unusual.
They decided to continue the festivities Sunday morning at the Locker Room with pitchers of green beer and the bar’s Paddy’s Day breakfast of eggs, bacon and toast.
“The green makes it better,” McDonald said. “I wish it was green all the time.”
“You have to take an Irish car bomb,” she added to Michels, who was visiting from Purdue.
They ordered two of the traditional drinks, dropped the shot of Bailey’s into the pint of Guinness and began to chug. Michels finished, but McDonald could only get through half. Kollmeyer, a junior zoology major, finished hers.
“Your face,” McDonald said, laughing as Kollmeyer’s face squished into a look of disgust.
“That was horrible,” Kollmeyer replied.
“We’re so Irish today,” McDonald said, continuing to laugh. “We’re on a roll. Whiskey jello shots, green beer and Irish car bombs, and it’s not even 11:45 [a.m.]”
Later in the evening, a group of 13 men and one woman at Savage’s celebrated the holiday with a bit of friendly competition: Guinness chugging, complete with a several rounds in a bracket format drawn out on a poster attached to the wall.
“You know the rules,” Joel Savage, the bar’s owner and fellow competitor, said. “Drink on ‘3, 2, 1, Go.’ You spill it, you’re disqualified. You puke, you get ejected from the bar.”
The prize? Pride and a cheap recreation of a wrestling belt that the competition’s creator, Kory Pratt, picked up.
After round one, it seemed clear who had a shot at winning. Nick Teaford, 26, had downed his 16-ounce glass before the others in his heat had even gotten halfway.
“Dude, that was fast,” said one of his fellow competitors in disbelief.
“I came to play, man,” Teaford replied.
After several more rounds and a smoke break, the competition came down to the final round between Teaford and Miles Shiveley, 39, a Savage’s regular. By that time, many in the bar were standing on chairs and craning their necks to watch.
It took two tries to determine a winner. The first attempt resulted in an unexplainable tie: Teaford finished his beer first, yet Shiveley managed to get his glass down first.
“Do over!” someone shouted from the bar, after several attempts at determining a winner through videos.
This time Teaford choked halfway, beer dripping down his beard, as Shiveley finished as the clear winner.
