Holidays

Before starting: I have a new place for my pictures on the Internet, on my Picasa site.
As I have written here before, holidays are very significant, and very common, in the DR. Holidays, regardless of origin, import, level of sacredness or impiousness, all tend to mean the same thing here – the kids are home from school, work of any kid grinds to a halt, and alcohol consumption increases, often exponentially. Equate them with Sundays, minus the whole church thing (usually). Since I like to put my own twist on things, last week I celebrated two holidays I enjoy that are celebrated by but a few people on this populated island: Purim and St. Patrick’s Day.
Purim, for those not in the know (or of the Tribe) is a Jewish holiday poetically simple in its founding – the Jews of Persia, in danger of being massacred by fiat of the king’s evil advisor, were saved by the recently chosen queen, herself Jewish, and her clever and sincere uncle. Jews across the world celebrate once again cheating death by the skin of their teeth (see: Hanukah, Passover) with a party that includes storytelling and general merriment. In the case of Santo Domingo, another Jewish Volunteer and I went to the new Jewish Chabad House, where we were among the small but functional international Dominican Jewish scene, speaking a confusing and yet comforting cacophony of Hebrew, Spanish and English. In addition to traditional Purim food, we were surprised to find that dinner consisted of, yes, Kosher Chinese food. Leave it to us to have Kosher Chinese for Purim in the DR. A good evening, indeed.

As for St, Patrick’s Day, well, that was a different story, but with a few similar themes. First, I have always found the similarities between the DR and Ireland compelling – Catholic and populous, they share a small island with another nation that differ in language, religion, culture, and history, and have been overrun by their neighbor. Sure, the DR has taken its just desserts and more out on Haiti, and Ireland is just recently raising its Celtic Tiger head, but still. Anyway, St, Patrick’s Day is celebrated by a select few here in the DR (although there were far more people at this party than at the one for Purim). In Cabarete, a crowded tourist beach town on the North Coast, a bar, aptly and certainly creatively named José O’Shay’s and very popular with Volunteers, hosts a raging St. Patrick’s Day party right on the beach. They have green giveaways (though, disappointingly, no green beer), a parade led by the Irish flag, Irish dancing, and of course bagpipes. Sure, you might say, bagpipes are Scottish; but on this side of the Atlantic, it’s all the same. Being the good cultural Ambassadors that we are, a number of us volunteers headed up to Cabarete to participate in the best, and as far as I know, only St. Patrick’s Day celelbration on the island. We were not disappointed. The beer flowed, painfully fake Irish brogues were bandied about, and we all enjoyed the day at a decidedly non-Irish coast.