Quote Originally Posted by Bryan View Post
I don't think you understand what I'm saying, but you're right about the Halloween thing. Maybe people in Europe and other parts of the world don't realize how big Halloween is here. Halloween is HUGE.

It's sort of like the St. Patrick's Day celebrations here. We do St. Patty's up big, but I think Americans (and our Canadian cousins up north if I'm not mistaken) are really the only ones who do. Correct me if I'm wrong, but St. Patty's, like the majority of our Halloween traditions for that matter, come from the Emerald Isle, but it isn't much celebrated there, is it?
Oh, I fully understand what you're saying but let's go to another field.

My understanding is that St. Patrick's Day parade is completely a New York invention. From there, it went across the US and into Canada. It's not as big in Canada but still a major event. There is some discussion to making an actual holiday since there isn't a spring one. Apparently, it's also getting to be a big event in Japan.
After it was well established in NA, then it became an event in Ireland. It's primarily tourist bait there. Tourists expect one so the Irish supplied one.

Not sure about your reference to Halloween as an Irish tradition. That seems to have come out of New England and built up from various European traditions. I think the main source would be resulting from stories of witch hysteria in Scotland and England in the 1700s.