St. Patrick’s Day: Ottawa style!
Basilica of St. Patrick This year was my first St. Patrick’s Day outside of Europe so I didn’t really know what to expect! Whilst I was in Italy, I never really celebrated it but when I was in Poland, with the help of my sister Andrea who came over for a few days from Germany, we had St. Patrick’s Day in style. However, I soon realised that St. Patrick’s Day is a big deal here. It started a few weeks ago with all the decorations and ads in the pubs advertising green Guinness and live Irish music. I even spotted a promised ‘ceili’! I subsequently found out that there was a special Mass in the Basilica of St. Patrick here in Ottawa, followed by a parade! So on Saturday the 16 th , I went with one of my classmates for Mass celebrated by Archbishop Terence Prendergast. A sole bagpiper greeted us on the steps though the poor guy really had my sympathy as the temperature must have been about minus 10 or 12 Celsius. Definitely not kilt weather! When I entered the Chur...