Monday Morning Quote – An Irish Toast to Friendship

Raise those glasses in honor of today’s Monday Morning Quote, a salute to Irish culture and traditions.

May you have warm words on a cold evening, a full moon on a dark night, and a smooth road all the way to your door. - Irish toast

The history of toasts themselves is unclear. During our research, we found that toasts may have arisen from the fear of being poisoned; by clanking glasses together, the drinks will spill over into other glasses, guaranteeing that if one drink was poisoned, everyone involved in the toast would also be affected. Other sources claim that the first recorded toast dates back to 450 AD, when King Vortigen of Britain arranged a feast for his Saxon allies. The toast that took place that night was supposedly to good health and fortune. In the 17^th century, it was believed that the noise from glasses clanking against one another would scare away devils.

The history of Irish toasts doesn’t seem to date back to any particular moment in Irish history. Rather, it seems to be an integral part of Irish culture and folklore, appropriate for a night out at the pub, celebrations, chance encounters, weddings, and of course, holidays.

And what better holiday to celebrate with toasts and good cheer than St. Patrick’s Day, one of Ireland’s biggest national holidays. Annually observed on March 17^th, this holiday honors Saint Patrick, a fifth-century saint of Britain who was called to Ireland to proselytize Irish pagans to Christianity. Saint Patrick was born in Wales and grew up a pagan. When he was sixteen, he was captured by Irish marauders and sold into slavery. After six years of being enslaved in Ireland, he had a dream that God was telling him to flee back to Britain by way of a ship. Saint Patrick obeyed and returned to Britain, where he studied and prepared for priesthood. He later returned to Ireland, and for the next 30 years he built churches and converted people to Christianity.

St. Patrick’s Day is celebrated all around the world, in the form of beer, shamrocks, and parades.  Don’t forget to “drown the shamrock” at the end of the night by taking the shamrock you’ve been sporting on your shirt or hat and tossing it into the last drink of the night. Make the final toast, perhaps to Saint Patrick himself, and once the glass is empty of liquid, take the shamrock and toss it over your left shoulder. Before the final drink has been drunk, though, make sure you try out some other Irish toasts found here.

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