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The Erin Luncheon |
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The Erin Luncheon, the centre-piece of St. Patrick's Home of Ottawa's week-long celebration of their namesake, is a collaborative effort of the Irish Society NCR and St. Patrick's Home Foundation. For several years, the event has been hosted at the Home, the meal has been prepared by the Home's very able chefs and the Main Dining Room and Library have been bursting at the seams with revelers. A silent auction is set up in the hallway, green is in view EVERYWHERE, the smell of Irish Stew pervades the air, and beer flows. The lilt of Irish music (provided by the very able Gail Gavan and Shades of Green) is also in the air (a different part of the air from that occupied by the scent of Irish stew) and folks are dancing their Irish hearts out. Around 2 pm, a quiet hush grows over the crowd as the staff of the Foundation bring out "drum" containing the lottery tickets. Someone from the crowd, perhaps last year's winner, is chosen to draw the first, the $10,000, ticket. The window of the drum is opened, the arm disappears into the drum, the hand stirs the pot of tickets "so as to be fair to everyone," and slowly draws out a piece of paper. Michael O'Byrne, the Master of Ceremonies and Honourary Chair of the Lottery, looks down and silently reads the name to himself, looks up and, into to the mike say, "Is [your name] here?" The crowd sighs, since [your name] is never there, but at the office, working or at home, instead of with us. The music starts up again, the beers glasses clink and conversations slowly begin anew. However it is not finished. There is still a $5,000 draw which is followed by twelve more of $1,000 each. Music and tickets vie for attention and at 3:30 all tickets have been drawn, and music is the real winner, because people are still calling for one more verse.... |
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