At Grumpy's Sports Pub today, patrons can expect corned beef, along with beer and other beverages turned green for the day - celebrating St. Patrick's Day.
Thousands of spectators got into the spirit early at the Aiken Trials on Saturday - the first leg of the Aiken Triple Crown each March. Adults and their children wore green and had a good time as a component of the tent parties.
St. Patrick goes back to the 400s A.D., and today is highly revered as the patron saint of Ireland. There is good reason for that, said Jerry Carroll, an Irish-American and a member of St. Mary Help of Christians Catholic Church.
He "Christianized" Ireland, which at least two centuries later led to the efforts to create the Book of Kells, a collection that preserves Christian heritage. It somehow survived through the Dark Ages.
"Christianity almost died in Europe," Carroll said. "Missionaries later went through Europe and evangelized it. The West owes a debt to St. Patrick."
Bill Brockington, a retired USC Aiken history professor, readily acknowledges that St. Patrick's Day has been commercialized, much like Christmas and Easter have been. But that's not a reason "to throw the baby out with the bottle."
The concept of the celebration of heroes can be found in Presidents Day, Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Cinco de Mayo, said Brockington. St. Patrick praised God with people who, like him, had the courage and the willingness to put their lives at risk.
"I want to make people aware there's more to St. Patrick than green beer," Brockington said. "But if (green beer) gets one person to think about what it really means, then it's worth it."
Maeve Wigelsworth, a Richmond County elementary school teacher for 25 years, grew up in Northern Ireland. She recalls attending Carricklee Races on St. Patrick's Day, watching the races with her father.
"It was a huge event for the town," she said.
Yet, the day also was a religious holiday, and everyone tried to get Shamrocks to wear to the church. There would be a concert at the Parish Hall with songs and dancing.
Wigelsworth has told her second-graders about St. Patrick's Day, using Google Earth to show them her Northern Ireland home. It was just a happy time before the troubles in Ireland emerged in the 1070s.
During a trip to Ireland last summer, Carroll was among a group to climb Croagh Patrick, the country's holiest mountain, where St. Patrick remained for 40 days and nights.
"Everyone climbs up the mountain, a two- to three-hour walk," he said. "The idea is you pray as you go up. ... You take it very seriously."
Carroll considers the opportunity as a spiritual journey. Yes, one can have fun on the holiday, but "it's a shame when I see that what St. Patrick's Day has become is not what was intended. That's one of the reasons I feel nostalgia for the Old Country."
Senior writer Rob Novit is the Aiken Standard's education reporter and has been with the newspaper since September 2001. He is a native of Walterboro and majored in journalism at the University of Georgia.