March 17 is, of course, St. Patrick’s Day.

Kathy is Irish, and every year on St. Patrick’s Day, she makes corned beef and cabbage.

It’s a nice little tradition, which I know is not unique to us.

I am not Irish, but I feel like we’ve always recognized St. Patrick’s Day in my family. I think once in a while my mom would make corned beef and cabbage for the holiday.

I don’t remember having it with Kathy as the first time in my life I had it, at least.

You know, there’s also the wearing o’ the green and all that.

Parades and heading out to the bars were never a part of my life, though.

There are other things that St. Patrick’s Day means to me.

The history teacher in me recognizes it as Evacuation Day - the day the British siege on Boston ended when the troops left Boston back in 1776. (I imagine there will be a big anniversary celebration around that next year…this year a lot of the 1775 events - Paul Revere, Battles of Lexington and Concord, Battle of Bunker Hill, are getting the 250th anniversary treatment.) Evacuation Day is a holiday in the Boston area…but a lot of skeptics think it is only celebrated so there’s no school on St. Patrick’s Day.

Every few years NCAA Tournament games would fall on March 17 and that was always like a holiday to me.

That was actually the most significant date in March for me - the first Thursday of the tournament.

But now I have a little Irish in my family - the girls are genetically Irish, I guess.

So I think it’s nice that Kathy makes the meal every year and we’re able to celebrate her heritage a little bit and she does a pretty nice job with the corned beef and cabbage, so it’s a win all around.

I hope you have a nice meal today too. Or you enjoy reading about the British evacuation. Or you do well with your bracket in the NCAA Tournament, which gets underway this week.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day.