>>>From: GUEST
Date: 19 Mar 06 - 10:32 AM

Just one example I found online (where there isn't much discussion of it--though it has come up on some other St Paddy's threads here at Mudcat):

American custom of wearing orange on Paddy's Day<<<

In some parts of the USA, it is still very common for Protestants to wear Orange on St. Patty's day to 'protest of the holiday' when what it seems they are really protesting is the continued presence of Irish Catholics or Catholics in general. I don't believe this is as common as it once was and it appears to be a regional thing and seems to be limited to the East Coast. I don't ever see it out here in California.

I grew up in and around New York City during the 1970s and this practise orf wearing orange was quite common in the public highschools, which often saw an influx of Catholic students in the 9th grade. Catholic High-school tuition was and is often beyond the means of working class Catholics. Many families will do their best to send their kids to Parochial School through the 8th grade but just can't cut it after that or, they send them to Public school to take advantage of Advanced Placement programs. Another reason is that transportation to the nearest Catholic Highscool is problematic or that enrollement spaces are not avilable. As a result, in some areas with lots of Italians or Irish families, there will be a substantial increase in Catholic students being enrolled in the 9th grade.

In the public High-School I attended, this sudden influx of Italian, Polish and Irish Catholic kids was met with various tactics to remind the Catholic kids they were on a lower societal rung. One tactic was the mass wearing of orange on St. Patricks day. Another was spitting at the foreheads of kids who went to Ash Wednsday services. I'm not sure that the effort to wear orange was Anti-Irish so much as it was Anti-Catholic. There were others related to Holy days of obligation and so on.

I'm not sure how common any of this is nowadays, but when I was in Highschool, none of the kids wearing orange deliberately were of Irish ancestry and it was not about pride in their Ulster heritage. It was intended as an offensive gesture. The Italian kids also got teased but I can't say specifically what things were done to them. The Polish Catholic kids were subjected to the usual "Pollock" jokes. And, these same kids threw pennies at Jewish kids and teachers and theym were quite cruel to Black kids. Ahh, High Schoo! "memories....like the corners of my mind..."

It's not all bad, my memories of having to integrate into Public school! There was one group of Protestant kids who belonged to a Church that derived from Quakerism. It was a stand-alone church I only remember as The 'Federated' Church. The "Federated" kids were quite nice and we enjoyed their company immensely - very open minded families and very welcoming to us Catholic kids. Members of their Church were often our Scouting leaders with many of them owning businesses in the are. Tthis was due to their being descended from people who first settled the area in the early 1700s. Wonderful people who didn't spit on ash wed or wear orange on St. Patty's day to taunt!