Don Chavez

Each March 18, the day after St. Patrick’s Day, people come from far and near to jam the joint, most wearing some sort of bag fashioned into a hat atop their head. The tradition dates back 24 years to a group of exhausted waitresses and casino workers who realized they had worked through the entire night and missed St. Paddy’s Day.

“We said, ‘We didn’t have too much fun on St. Patrick’s Day; let’s start our own holiday,’” said Cathy Burke, who owns the pub. “The bartender had just brought out a pile of bags that they use behind the bar, and we put some on our heads and said, ‘We declare today Bag Day, the official holiday of The Irish Pub and anyone who has to work on St. Patrick’s Day.’”

That day, the staff met people at the door and told them they couldn’t enter unless they wore a bag on their heads, handing them out to the slightly startled patrons. As the years went by, people started bringing their own bags, many richly painted and decorated.

Is it really this easy to pull one over a chick from Jersey? I mean seriously, “Bag Day”? We all know that this is the fairy tale version of how this holiday started. In reality some asshole bet his friend $5 that he could convince the cougar in the corner of the pub to wear a brown bag on her head because it was “Bag Day”. The only way he could collect though was if he brought her home and shagged her while she was wearing the brown bag, over her face. The guy wins the bet and becomes a Jersey legend. After making this an annual tradition, the Brown Bag story goes mainstream and people begin to think it’s cool and it becomes a holiday.

Truth be told, we’ve all unofficially celebrated “Bag Day” a handful of times during our college careers.