Can someone explain..

[hel_ana]

this pinching thing to me?

I've seen a couple of references to it, but it's just not something I've ever heard of before.

Comments

[eve2007.livejournal.com]

If it's referring to St. Patrick's Day.... you get pinched if you don't wear green.
I don't know why though. So I just wear green.

[hel_ana]

LOL

I wear green for my grandma.

She's not Irish, though. She and my Grandfather were married on March 17 1945 in basingstoke england. He was anglican church of canada (and his grandfather was a loyal orangeman who once played king billy in the toronto orangeman's day parade.) She was raised Salvation Army, but went to the ACC after they were married. They were married, of course, in the Church of england.

All of my life, he wore the orange on St. Patty's day, and to tweak him, she wore the green. It was a little family tradition. (And, of course, my mother's Irish Catholic, so that was always a point of teasing between mom and grandpa.)

[eve2007.livejournal.com]

I have a guy at work who puts up his Brittish flag on St. Patrick's Day. It's his way of rebelling :)

[hel_ana]

cute.

I've been known to put on a bit of a brogue and explain that patrick was merely the first in a long line of englishmen who've taken it upon themselves to tell the Irish how to live, and can we really be holding with that, now?

[eve2007.livejournal.com]

lol :)

It's going to be so cool when you get here!

[hel_ana]

:) I'm really looking forward to it myself.

[critus.livejournal.com]

I think it's just an excuse to pinch people.

[hel_ana]

Ya think?

Personally, I'm not a fan of Patrick. but ::shrugs::

As was explained to me...

[singingwolf.livejournal.com]

Wearing green honors Podraig (St Patrick) who drove the "snakes" out of Ireland.

Not wearing green on his day, means that you get a symbolic "snake bite"... hence the pinch.

Or... as critus pointed out... it's just an excuse to pinch someone. *grin*

Re: As was explained to me...

[hel_ana]

interesting

my family's irish. Well, my mother's side. I've *never* heard of this.

And when I say "Irish", I don't mean "one irish ancestor 80 years ago".. my mother's maiden name is Kelly.. she's second or third gen Canadian, and her family settled in a town called Lucan, chiefly famous for the Donnelly feud.

I wonder if it's actually a culturally American or southern thing. Has anyone *not* from Florida heard of this?

[holliemonster.livejournal.com]

has to do with not wearing green on st. patricks day. not sure where or why it came from. superstition of some sort i imagine.

[hel_ana]

Yeah, now I'm really interested about the geographical spread of it.

[spuriusfurius.livejournal.com]

I never heard of it until I came to Florida when I was eight. Second grade, it's St. Patrick's day, and I'm not wearing green because I'm not Irish (nor, at the time, Catholic). Some kid comes up to me and pinches me. So I slugged him. I got sent to the principal's office. It went something like this:

Principal: "Why did you hit Tre?"
Me: "Because he pinched me."
Principal: "Of course he did. You're not wearing green."
Me: ::boggle::

[hel_ana]

Uh, yeah.

So where did you move *from*, if I may ask?

[spuriusfurius.livejournal.com]

New Jersey. Moved to Orlando in 1974, moved to Tampa in 1987, and moved to Pinellas in 1998.

[hel_ana]

ok..

so the only people I've heard this from live in Florida, Tennessee, and Texas, though I don't know if the TN and TX people have ever lived in Florida.

It needs further study, but initial findings support it being a fairly geographically limited thing.