St. Patrick’s Day in Canada now celebrates spending money
TORONTO, March 17, 2005 -- What is it about St. Patrick’s Day that has so captured the imagination of Canadians? To Alan Middleton, professor of marketing at York University’s Schulich School of Business, it’s been many long years since marking the Saint’s Day of “the Welshman who went and taught the Irish Christianity had any religious connotation.”
Irish immigrants to Canada have long been celebrating the patron saint of their home country, but in recent years Canadians without a drop of Irish blood have embraced St. Patrick’s Day as a day for drinking green beer, exchanging greeting cards, eating corned beef and cabbage and “the wearing o’ the green.” The inclination of Canadians of all ages and backgrounds to adopt these strange practices once a year has nothing to do with a romantic desire to embrace Ireland and all things Irish, Middleton notes.
“St. Patrick’s Day is now all about business,” says Middleton. “It is part of our increased focus on the celebration of any occasion where we can spend money.”
Businesses of every kind across Canada – particularly bars and restaurants – will be draped in green and decorated with leprechauns. Hundreds of thousands of St. Patrick’s Day greeting cards will be exchanged. Over ten per cent of Canada’s annual sales of Guinness will be made on this one day.
Even the Google search engine’s home page is festooned with shamrocks on March 17 and wishes visitors “Happy St. Patrick’s Day”.
Known as Canada’s Global Business School™, the Schulich School of Business at York University is ranked among the best business schools in the world. Innovative and diverse, Schulich offers programs at undergraduate, graduate, postgraduate and executive education levels.
York University is the leading interdisciplinary teaching and research university in Canada. York offers a modern, academic experience at the undergraduate and graduate level in Toronto, Canada’s most international city. The third largest university in the country, York is host to a dynamic academic community of 50,000 students and 7,000 faculty and staff, as well as 180,000 alumni worldwide. York’s 10 faculties and 21 research centres conduct ambitious, groundbreaking research that is interdisciplinary, cutting across traditional academic boundaries. This distinctive and collaborative approach is preparing students for the future and bringing fresh insights and solutions to real-world challenges.
For more information, or to arrange an interview, the media should contact:
Jeff Ball, Media Relations, York University, 416-736-2100, x22086 / jball@yorku.ca
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