I created and uploaded a video onto my YouTube channel about one of my decades-long traditions. (length:5'59")

My Decades-Long Tradition (March 17, 2025)

https://youtu.be/TEIysFsWNeo?si=OSEZvpoC94LzWkad

Follow along as I explain my decades-long personal tradition, and then ask yourself, as I do now: Why do I make my life so complicated, especially in regard to the color of my garments?

I am once again following my own decades-long, personal tradition of wearing the color purple on St. Patrick's Day today (March 17, 2025). I have been doing this since my age was in single digits in the late 1960s because I am half Italian. (I am also Austrian, Swiss, and Portuguese.)

Purple is the color of the Italians. I am a lifetime member of Alpha Phi Delta, which is a national, Italian-heritage, social-service fraternity, at colleges and universities in mostly the northeastern section of the United States. I became a member in the early 1980s, when I was studying for my undergraduate degree at Villanova University in Villanova, Pennsylvania, near Philadelphia. I was soon elected as a member of the fraternity's local Executive Board, specifically as "Recording Secretary." Our fraternity colors are purple and white, with the white carnation as our fraternity flower.

When I started my tradition in the late 1960s, around seven or eight years old, it was slightly before I had discovered that we Italians have our own celebratory day, St. Joseph's Day, which is two days later on March 19 every year.

After all of these decades, I continue to keep my purple tradition alive, as you can see in this video from today, as I continue to convalescence at home.

However, we Italians wear red on St. Joseph's Day, which I will be doing in two days. Before I knew about the red, I wore purple on both days.

As an aside, do not wear the color orange on St. Patrick's Day, that is, unless you want to offend the Irish Catholics. Orange is the color of the Protestants. And, of course, wearing green on either day was really never an option for me due to my contrarian nature.