It is the week when Irish descendants everywhere “switch gears” to celebrate the tenth St. Patrick’s Day of the twenty first century. My island of Montserrat with its strong Irish tradition and history and has expanded the commemoration of March 17, 1978 to a week long celebration. Today begins a week long celebration as we observe the efforts of our Irish ancestor’s attempts to gain freedom; that led to the 1768 uprising. Three hundred years on and the spirit of the ancestor’s still lives on and this is echoed throughout the celebration of St. Patrick’s week. “As the wooden shamrock adorns the gable at the Government house many are busy in preparation for the week.” Custom officers are busy stamping the shamrock in many passports. Slave huts are being erected. The national dish goat water is being prepared. Both residents and visitors move to the beats of the bodhran, babla (drums.) The masquerades crack their whips. The mood is cheerful and contagious and we remember our heritage in varied and imaginative ways. Enjoy the video and view the list events scheduled for the week of celebrations.
Today was my daughter’s sports day. It was not the traditional sports (track and field athletics) that I grew up with but it reminded me of my athletic days in primary school when we had cross country (a road race) all dressed in white. The girls would start the race first and the boys started fifteen minutes after with a perhaps a quarter of a mile more than the girls. Back then the school was grouped in houses. Our houses were named after colors; green, red and blue house.
The first ten students’ to complete the race would get medals and their points were given to the houses. After the tenth position each person would get one point – that would go towards their respective houses as well. Back then the sports included relays, the egg and spoon race, the needle and thread race, the sack race, the high jump, the long jump, the potato race, and the long and short races (50 meters to 400 meters dash around the ball field.) We ran on grass and not a rubber surface track. The last race for the children would always be tug-of-war. The winning house of this sport would also get a cake. I would always remember the winning house at sports day (the house with the most points) would also get a big cake with icing.
The parents also looked forward to sports days as well as they would participate in the parent’s race at the end of sports day. Within our houses we would have qualifying races according to our age then the three fastest would advance to compete against the respective winners of the other houses. What we also liked possibly most about sports day was that some parents would be lined up on the side of the road as vendors selling ice cream, snow cone, sugar cake, fry chicken, sodas, cake, peanuts and chewing gum (max chewing gum).
It would be really interesting to see a conversation by my blog readers about your own conversations with your peers, parents or even children about your participation or alternatively lack of involvement in school sports. There is such value in communicating our experiences with others.
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