Okay, so I LOVE St. Patrick's day.
No, I'm not Catholic.
No, I'm not Irish. Heck, I'm not even MARRIED into Irish. My last name is Craig, but it's the Scottish Craigs that my husband's family comes from- and HE'S adopted. LOL.
However, I'm 99% Scandinavian and 1% Native American (just enough to make me dark instead of fair), and I'm sure I have plenty of Viking ancestors in there who raped and pillaged the Irish, thus leaving my mark on Ireland herself.
Honestly, I brought this all on myself. I'm the odd one out in my family. My parents and my siblings kind of roll their eyes when I get giddy about this. Until I was married, I had never had corned beef or cabbage.
However, from second grade on, my dream was to live in Ireland. I loved it. I still do. Everything about it. I studied it, it's history, it's lore, and I am still as in love as the day I discovered it.
In high school, I joined an Irish dance group Rinceoiri Don Spraoi (Rin cory don spree- It means "dancing for fun" in Irish-Gaelic) and brought my friends with me- my sister in law too, though I didn't know we'd be related then. It didn't take long before we were on the performing team, and we made our way to our first Scottish Festival.
Okay- Scottish Festivals are AWESOME. They always have excellent brewed root-beer, lots of booths about how to find your lineage and family crests, places to buy awesome things like fairy and dragon charms, sometimes Pagan booths and of course, there are Scottish games, like the caber toss.
But NOTHING beats the mass bands. Bagpipes, drummers, all marching, pleats swaying, drumsticks and mallets flipping and spinning...it gives me the chills. It's so haunting. And completely drool-worthy. Mmmmm. Boys in kilts.
Brandon has a canvas utility kilt, and he wore it there, but I didn't take any pictures. I was too busy taking pictures of the pipers. He needs a REAL kilt (traditional 8 yards. GOOOOOOOO PLEATS!!!!!!!!!) in the Craig tartan. I am SO starting a fund right now.
This is my cute sister in law- dressed like a gypsy. Her troupe is in the float above- though they didn't dance. Hard shoes on wet cement don't mix very well.
Yes...bagpipes....and boys in kilts. I have no idea what their faces look like, if they're hot or not...I'm just in a trance while staring at the pleats.
Hm. Apparently I didn't get any pictures of drummers. DANG IT!
These guys are my Sister in Law's rival team. But aren't their dresses BEAUTIFUL!!! I WANT!!!! They're dancing because it hadn't started raining yet.
17 comments:
Beautiful pictures! The Irish culture is just so interesting. My husband adn I have always said we want to go to Ireland someday!
My mom's side of the family is Irish and we've wanted to go to Ireland forever. It's an awesome culture and guys in kilts are hot! I've always been ga-ga for them:)
I'm English but lived in Ireland for a long time, in Dublin and if we ever returned to Europe it would be to Ireland, not England or anywhere else we have lived. I love it - the people are amazing, the Craic is never ending, the attitude to life is all about family, friends and enjoying the life we have and you just about have it all in Dublin - city life, great restaurants (and bars - did I mention the bars???? and clubs????) and then to top it all off you have the beautiful coastline AND the mountains and scenery to die for where you can hike all day and hardly see a soul. So if you ever get a chance to go then grab it with both hands.
So today I am so missing my friends and wishing I was there.
When I was a kid I THOUGHT I was Irish but it turns out I was just born in March and someone gave me a bear that said "Kiss me, I'm Irish". Sigh. Maybe that's why I rebel against the holiday as an adult. :)
Men in kilts?
That's enough for me!
The dancers are always one of my favorite parts of the parades! great photo trip through the events! Now I am even more in the spirit.
Happy St. Patrick's Day!
LOVE me some bagpipes and kilts!! That's why I insisted on kilts at my wedding. :)
I've been wanting to get DH a kilt since before he came home from his mission (I was already hoping he would end up marrying me, lol). Once it's in the budget, we'll get him a kilt in the Newfoundland tartan - it's not my favorite (green and orange), but my family's tartan (Renfrew) isn't much better, and Newfoundland means more to him anyway. :)
Shallyse- yeah. I'm sad to remember that kilts weren't in our budget for our wedding. But I still thought ours was really pretty. LOL- your wedding was GREAT! We got an excellent shot of Will's religion during the garter toss. LOL. It's really a shame I wasn't with Brandon at the time. I was with a DIFFERENT boy- and was still drooling over him in his kilt. LOL.
Yeah- the Craig tartan isn't my favorite either. But at least it's unmistakable.
Oh- and PS- anyone who is wondering what the craig tartan looks like, if you enlarge the pic of my sister inlaw, she's wearing a craig tartan scarf around her neck...it's not THAT bad. IT's kind of growing on me.
Great photos, and since you are such a fan of men in kilts, my I invite you to visit my web site at
http://www.your-kilt.com where you can drool over kilted men till your hearts content.
Kind Regards,
David.
The rivals even got a nod, very nice.
The dancing photo is fantastic! Sorry it rained tho.
We have lots of "rivals" but I think that pic is actually of the "C" school from which we've had a lot of transfers to our school lately. In fact, most of those girls in the first two rows I danced against (terribly) at the last feis! Funny!
I want a guy in a kilt! Where can I buy one? Let's start pricing kilts for your hubby, eh?
Love,
The Dancing Sis in law
LOL - I LOVE that our videographer captured that "religious" moment for posterity's sake! He also captured the infamous kiss that took place outside the temple. As much as I didn't think I wanted a videographer at my wedding, I'm so glad my mom convinced me, because the day was such a blur that I wouldn't remember any of it otherwise.
THat was awesome. LOL. Ridiculously so.
Stephie- you really need to call Todd. You don't even have to buy him and he has TWO kilts!!!!
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