Wave the Flag

March is not quite February, but it does not need to be. This year, Spring is here in March not May! That in it self makes me want to celebrate. But March is no slouch in the holiday department either.



Here in Illinois, on March 4, we have Casmir Pulaski Day. Rumor has it, that many years ago, when the fine legislative body of Illinois was trying to pass the Federal holiday for Martin Luther King, Jr., a deal was struck to add Casmir's day to appease Chicagoland's Polish population. Chicago has more people of Polish decent than any other city in world outside of Warsaw, Poland. (Casmir Pulaski was a Polish general who supported the United States during the Revolutionary War.)



Then the big holiday of March is St Patrick's Day. Here again, Chicago holds the claims to have the largest St Patrick's Day parade in the world outside of Dublin, Ireland. Growing up in Chicago with an Irish Mayor (Daley #1), everyone was Irish. Even with our Catholic school uniforms, we were allowed to wear a green accessory. At home, we celebrated with a dinner of corned beef, boil cabbage and potatoes. During my 20's, I truly celebrated in true style, I drank green beer. One year, St Patrick's Day fell on a Friday. Whoa! On Saturday, I woke up with green hands and a green tongue from all the green beer I drank on Friday night. Now, I toast St Patrick with a margarita (it's green!).

Tomorrow (March 19) is a lesser known holiday. Like St Patrick's Day, it is a Catholic saint's holiday. Unlike the other two holidays, Chicago can not lay claim to having the largest Italian population in the world. The holiday is St. Joseph's Day. This is a far more holy day than holiday. But as a child growing up in Chicago, the Italian population knew how to celebrate this holy day/holiday. Many of the Italian neighborhoods and Catholic churches would celebrate with an Italian dinner. Of course, Aunt Marie knew all of them and which ones were the best. On the evening of March 19, we would dress in red and wait for Aunt Marie to drive us to the best (please don't take offense to this) I-talian food celebration. Yes, Aunt Marie was one of those people who said "I-talians." No one else in the family did.

Unfortunately, most of us who grew up in the city during the 1950's and 1960's eventually moved to the suburbs. We are now third and fourth generation decent to the United States. Many of our traditions have blended and faded away. For many suburbs, a "Taste of Name your Suburb" would be all Kraft and Sara Lee products (Tombstone pizza, velveeta, and wonder bread). So tomorrow, I will be making an Italian dinner reminiscent of the old St Joseph's Day Italian dinners.

Ciao - MOM