DATELINE MONDAY 14TH MARCH 2022

Good Monday morning or as the Irish would say “top of the morning to you” I hope you are well and ready to celebrate St Patricks Day this Thursday 17th March which is also the day of the Jewish festival of Purim. Regular readers will know I like to dig into the what, why, when, how, behind special days. It appears that St Patrick’s Day officially became a national holiday in Ireland in 1903 and it is also a bank holiday in Northern Ireland. St Patrick’s Day is big in the USA and of course Ireland it is believed that the first St Patrick’s Day parade was held in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1737, while others argue that the first parade took place in New York in 1762. The day commemorates Saint Patrick and the introduction of Christianity in Ireland and celebrates the Irish heritage and culture. The celebrations usually involve public parades and festivals, ceilis and dressing up in green attire and shamrocks. It celebrates Saint Patrick, who died on March 17, c. 461, and is credited with bringing Christianity to Ireland, as he allegedly described the Holy Trinity (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) by using shamrock leaves. Saint Patrick was born in Roman Britain in the late fourth century and according to legend, in the fifth century, St Patrick was kidnapped and taken to Ireland when he was 16 years old as a slave. Although he escaped, he returned in 432 ce to bring Christianity to Ireland and by the time of his death, he had already founded monasteries, churches, and schools.

The story behind the festival of Purim is a lot more complicated but in a nutshell it all began in Ancient Persia in the fourth century BCE. The Holy Temple that had stood in Jerusalem was destroyed more than 50 years earlier, and the Jews were subjects of the mighty Persian empire that extended over 127 lands. Three years after King Ahasuerus ascended the Persian throne, when he felt secure in his new position, he celebrated by throwing a grand 180-day-long party for all his subjects. Following this extravagant gala, Ahasuerus hosted a smaller week-long party for the residents of the capital city of Shushan. In the palace’s women’s quarters, Ahasuerus’s wife, Queen Vashti, hosted her own party for the Shushanite womenfolk. On the seventh day of this party, Ahasuerus’s heart “was merry with wine,” and he commanded his wife Vashti to appear before all the partying men; he wanted to show them all her exquisite beauty. Vashti balked at this request, and at the advice of his adviser, Memuchan, Ahasuerus ordered Vashti’s execution. Haman the Prime Minister of the time plotted to kill all the Jews, and the king agreed without a second thought. The king chose Esther as his new queen to replace Vashti, Esther adamantly refused to divulge her identity. When the Jews knew they were in danger, Esther asked them to fast and repent. She then won the king’s favour, disclosed her Jewishness and asked him to save her nation. Outraged at the decree against his queen, the king had Haman hung, and allowed the Jews to take revenge on their would-be killers. Mordechai, Esther’s uncle, was appointed as prime minister instead of Haman. Jewish festivals can be summed up in one short sentence “they tried to kill us, they failed, let’s eat” 😊

The News is not good for Ukraine, not good for the Russians either, the only good to come out of this tragedy is the out pouring of human kindness to the refugees. To see the scenes at airports and railway stations in Europe, people holding up signs offering accommodation to refugees was awesome, even the UK government seems to finally have got its act together.

That wretched man in Russia is loosing and he knows that so all he can do is to bomb Ukraine into oblivion, what a tosser.

The Marks family has a terrific weekend, big brother Allan visited from Israel with his youngest daughter Shani and her youngest child Estee now my Mum, Great Grandma Estelle has met all her great grand children all thirteen of them with one more on the way.

Finally the weather, I always bang on about the weather, looks like it’s going to be a great spring week of weather.

MM and Company news update

Every week we at MM and Company receive updates on new hotel openings, new venues, destination developments and other news this week I have received nothing, zilch from our awesome DMCs and there is a very good reason for that lack of news.

I am DELIGHTED to tell you that the DMCs have sent me NOTHING to tell you because the DMCs are at last madly, crazy busy delivering new proposals, site inspections and events for you, our amazing clients, the travel bug is back big time

And that’s it you are once again up to date

Wishing you an outstanding week ahead