by Michelle Osborne

The story of St. Patrick's Day begins around 385 AD with a man named Maewyn. At age 16, the Pagan Maewyn was sold into slavery, which brought him closer to God. He finally managed to escape slavery six years later and headed to a monastery in Gaul to study, where he adopted the Christian name "Patrick." Upon ending his studies, he moved to Ireland, where he felt his calling in life was to convert Pagans to Christianity. For the next 30 years, he traveled throughout the country, setting up monasteries and converting the natives. After his death in 461 (on March 17th, when else did you expect?), he was declared a saint.

So what happened from there? How did a man who spent his entire life converting Pagans to Christianity result in a day devoted to rowdy songs, parades, and drinking green beer, a day when everyone is just a wee bit Irish? The first St. Patrick's Day Parade was in America, not Ireland. It took place in New York City in 1762, and consisted of Irish soldiers in the English military marching through the city. This was a chance for the soldiers to reconnect with their heritage. Eventually, as more Irish immigrants came to America, the parades were a show of strength for Irish-Americans and political candidates had to make an appearance at them. Now a regular annual event, people of all backgrounds celebrate this day.

Ireland, on the other hand, does not have such a long history of St. Patrick's Day celebrations. Prior to the 1970s, it was a religious occasion and, indeed, Irish law mandated that pubs be closed on March 17! Apparently, there was no green beer for those in Ireland. This changed around 1995, when the government made a push to use St. Patrick's Day as a way to drive tourism and to showcase Ireland to the rest of the world. Parades and celebrations are now common in Ireland around this day (in fact, their celebrations last several days) and some one million people took part in last year's festivities in Dublin.

When people nowadays think of this day, they get an image of the shamrock in their head. You see it on the sides of buildings, on hats and clothing, on balloons and decorations. Why? Its origins are rooted in Patrick himself. He used the shamrock as a way to show how the trinity works: three separate elements of the same entity.

So wherever you are, whether you're Irish or not, get out there and enjoy the day!

If you would like more information on the holiday, the History Channel will be showing The History of St. Patrick's Day on March 17 and 7pm/6 central.

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Celtic MP3s Music Magazine writer, Michelle Osborne (Irish Music Reviews), a native to the central New York region, plays both high and low whistles regularly with the Syracuse Irish session. Besides being heavily involved in Irish traditional music, she is also a classical clarinetist and composer.

More St Patrick's Day Music Links:

• St Patrick's Day in Austin
• Free Irish Music Downloads
• Songs of Ireland for St Patrick's Day
• Fans of Irish Celtic Music
• Irish Song Lyrics
• St Patrick's Day Music & Poetry

I had a stroke of inspiration today and designed two simple websites to promote a couple of my online ventures: Free Classical Music Downloads and Free Music Promotion.

Free Classical Music Downloads
This website began based on an older site I did of classical music downloads. It's a little bit more detailed than the first site because I also included a quick link to my eBook I designed called >Mozart's Digital Concerto. That book includes links to other free classical music downloads that I've found online. Plus, there's a links page. But mostly, the site is designed to promote a newsletter I send out every now and again. I aim for monthly, but do what I can. It's an ezine of free classical mp3s. I have a couple hundred subscribers at present. And it grows fast.

Free Music Promotion
Since Spring of 2000, I have written free music promotion articles. They've been a bit less often over the last couple o'years. I just haven't felt the inspiration to write. But I do quite a bit as I'm able. The articles were first published at The Bards Crier Music Marketing website. Later, I republished some at the Unsigned Bands Promotion website. This is a new site designed specially for those interested in free music promotion.

I hope you enjoy the new sites. If you are interested in web promotion, check out David Nevue's book on web promotion. Good book!

I just got done watching Before Sunset. The movie lacks the beautiful scenery found in Before Sunrise, but what a great movie. It really moves me. A lot like Before Sunrise did in my poem.

I'm such a romantic.

I sit here dreaming of those who got away. The ones I loved. I realize how unimportant... trivial some things were and wonder what the Hell was I thinking?

Love. It's fleeting.

Am I doomed to follow the sunset steps of misappropriated love?

Now I sit here with a cat in my lap. My only love. Or one of them. My children. Those that I wish I had. They're furrier than I hoped, but I guess this was better.

Except...

I want to travel the world. And I worry that they won't want to.

What I really want is someone to share in the adventure.
But I want to be happy in doing so. An adventurous spirit.
Heart-felt and holy in her desire to live.
Young in heart, but not bound by the trivial confines of reckless youth.

And I want to love and be loved.
That's the trick too.
Too often the overwhelming emotion eludes me.
I trickle into a torrent of unsatisfied menagerie.
Disheartened by my inability to recognize truth
In my own beating heart.

The road goes ever on
But seems to far to begin the trip.
Much easier is it to hide in my flat
And flatten my dreams.

But THIS romantic love
That haunts my light heart
And makes me quiver with delight
As I gaze into the blackened box
That holds ALL my dreams...
  Or does it?

Maybe the adventure is JUST beginning
Maybe the song has JUST begun
Maybe the smile that JUST was hidden
Will awaken tomorrow with adventures unsung.

I publish a lot of music marketing articles. While I've done nothing new recently, I have a plethora music marketing info that you can find by checking out these articles.

• A Great Band Name
• Your Speaking Skills Can Make You a Better Music Performer
• Filling Your Music Marketing Funnel
• Top 10 Websites Linked to Me in May
• Don't Just Spend Money
• The 21 Most Powerful Copywriting Rules of All Time
• Easy Gigs Around the Globe at No Cost to You
• Top 10 Websites Linked to Me
• You've Got... Complaints! How to Turn Disgruntled Customers Into Raving Fans
• Selling Your Music Online

In an effort to keep people up-to-date on my latest articles and stuff I write. Here are the ten latest ones.

• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
• American Humane Association Reminds Pet Owners to Beware This Halloween
• Cat Licks
• The Austin Celtic Festival Is Coming
• Rose Wood Guild
• Talking Your Way to Great Music Marketing
• I got the The Limeybirds CD
• Serenity Movie
• Serenity Firefly
• Celtic Radio - Irish Music Podcasts

Hopefully you too will find something interesting to read.

Here's another email that was forwarded to me.

BATHROOMS:
Always accompany guests to the bathroom. It is not necessary to do anything. Just sit and stare.

DOORS:
Do not allow any closed doors in any room. To get door open, stand on hind legs and hammer with forepaws.

Once door is opened, it is not necessary to use it. After you have ordered an "outside" door opened, stand halfway in and out and think about several things. This is particularly important during very cold weather, rain, snow, or mosquito season.

CHAIRS AND RUGS:
If you have to throw up, get to a chair quickly. If you cannot manage in time, get to an Oriental rug. If there is no Oriental rug, shag is good.

When throwing up on the carpet, make sure you back up so it is as long as a humans bare foot.

HAMPERING:
If one of your humans is engaged in some activity and the other is idle, stay with the busy one. This is called "helping," otherwise known as "hampering."

Following are the rules for "hampering:"

1) When supervising cooking, sit just behind the left heel of the cook. You cannot be seen and thereby stand a better chance of being stepped on and then picked up and comforted.

2) For book readers, get in close under the chin, between eyes and book, unless you can lie across the book itself.

3) For paperwork, lie on the work in the most appropriate manner so as to obscure as much of the work as possible or at least. Pretend to doze, but every so often reach out and slap the pencil or pen.

4) When a human is holding the newspaper in front of him/her, be sure to jump on the back of the paper. Humans love to jump.

5) When human is working at computer, jump up on desk, walk across keyboard, bat at mouse pointer on screen and then lay in human's lap across arms, hampering typing in progress.

WALKING:
As often as possible, dart quickly and as close as possible in front of the human, especially: on stairs, when they have something in their arms, in the dark, and when
they first get up in the morning. This will help their coordination skills.

BEDTIME:
Always sleep on the human at night so he/she cannot move around.

LITTER BOX:
When using the litter box, be sure to kick as much litter out of the box as possible. Humans love the feel of kitty litter between their toes.

HIDING:
Every now and then, hide in a place where the humans cannot find you. Do not come out for three to four hours under any circumstances.

This will cause the humans to panic (which they love) thinking that you have run away or are lost. Once you do come out, the humans will cover you with love and kisses and you will probably get a treat.

ONE LAST THOUGHT:
Whenever possible, get close to a human, especially their face, turn around, and present your butt to them.

Humans love this, so do it often. And don't forget guests!