St. Pat's Day (I) Losing My Religion

Originally by Sinclair Nicholas, adapted by Mr. Milan Šácha

I wonder if you have heard of St Pat's day. You may know that it has something to do with the Irish. It does. It is also a lot of college students' favorite holiday. Why is that? I'll explain that in a little while. First I'd like to tell you how it all started and how it is celebrated today.

The celebration originally came from Ireland and pretty much explains why there are no snakes in Ireland anymore. You see, people believe that this holy guy named Pat drove all the snakes off the island some time in the 5th century. As a result, every year the Irish celebrate the day that Saint Patrick performed that miracle. But do not make the mistake of thinking the holiday is some kind of religious event. No, it is a holiday more like Mardi Gras. In some larger cities they have big parades and everyone drinks lots of beer. Green beer.

 There is one college town that is famous for doing a great job of its St. Pat's day celebration. It is this engineering university in Rolla, Missouri. People come from all over the country to see the students party, but the truth is that the celebrations aren't as good as they used to be because of some problems they had. I happened to be there the year they had those problems, so let me tell you what happened.