There is another, more poetic reason though. One of the first people I met on arrival in Singapore nearly 4 years ago was my dear friend Nikki, who is Irish and a real, live, (adult) Third-Culture Kid! I was sharing a beautiful meal with her last week (at the fabulous KILO) and we got talking about her personal 'Third-Culture experience'. Nikki was born in Malaysia and has lived in various countries across Asia and the Middle East pretty much her entire life. In fact, except for a couple of years at boarding school in Dublin she has not really lived in Ireland much at all. Interestingly she still has a strong Irish accent - which I LOVE! I have invited Nikki to be a guest blogger down the track and am really looking forward to her contribution.
So I want to dedicate this post to my favourite Third-Culture-Adult, Nikki... welcome back to Singapore mate!
NOW... on with the Show!
St Patrick's day I've often celebrated with a Guinness and a giggle, but I have to admit that I'd never really thought much about it's origins. There is loads of information about St Patricks day on the web but given the short notice and my daughter's short attention span, we kept it to the simple points below...
- Ireland is an island right next door to Great Britain** (our condo friends joined us for this exercise and their mummy explained that Great Britain was where Uncle Jack lives so that was a nice reference point for them)
- It's pretty cold most of the time in Ireland and it is very green and beautiful
- Once many Irish people had to move away from Ireland because there were not enough potatoes to eat, but that happened a long time ago!
- St Patricks day is a happy day for the people of Ireland and everyone wears green to celebrate!
- On St Patricks day the Irish people like to tell a story about a little man called a Leprechaun who is no taller than a small child. This little Leprechaun man is a little bit naughty and a little bit grumpy and he spends his days busily making shoes. The Leprechaun keeps gold coins in a pot at the end of the rainbow.
- In America there is a big river in Chicago and even though it is not part of Ireland the people celebrate St Patrick's day by turning the big river BRIGHT GREEN!!
So after a quick chat about the Leprechaun and green rivers... we did some painting!
I had prepared a large sheet with a basic rainbow and a black pot.
The kids helped me sprinkle gold glitter (to represent the gold coins)
...and then we got about decorating with green paint - I had made some shamrock stamps but have to admit they did not work very well!
I had hoped that by the end of the exercise we could add 'green' to Miss May's every growing vocabulary ... alas 'yellow' will suffice for now!
In the end it turned into a condo painting bonanza and there were little semi-naked artists everywhere...
... as usual some people preferred the 'yellow' water to anything else!!!
HAPPY ST PATRICKS DAY EVERYONE!!!
** I omitted any reference to Northern Ireland for the purpose of simplicity
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