Wednesday's Word -- Leprechaun

It is St. Patrick's Day.  And one of my favorite meals is a big bowl of Lucky Charms, after all.

The word "leprechaun" comes from the Old Irish luchorpán, which dissected is "lu," meaning small and "corp," meaning body.  So leprechaun means "small body."  According to Irish folklore, leprechauns are male fairies who often work as shoemakers or tailors and are thought to have hidden pots of gold at the end of the rainbow.  If caught, they will reveal the location of the gold, but usually they trick you, cunningly snatching the gold away at the last moment.  In some stories, a leprechaun will grant you wishes if you catch him.  In others, the leprechaun might turn you into a skunk or a rabbit if you displease him in some way.

Although Hollywood and the media have portrayed leprechauns as little gaudy men decked in green with top hats and red hair, the older folktales depict leprechauns dressed in red.  The leprechauns are said to come from the supernatural tribes of the Tuatha Dé Danann of Irish mythology.  These people ruled Ireland for a very long time, but when the humans arrived and began building villages in the formerly wild woods, the tribes hid and over time made themselves smaller and smaller so that they could easily hide from humans.  


Believe it or not, a $6.8 million National Leprechaun Museum was just opened in Dublin, Ireland last week. The museum has a series of attractions in different rooms, ending -- as all such tours must -- in a gift shop.  There is a rain room, where sound effects and lights make you feel like you're outside in an Irish rainstorm.  There's also a leprechaun well that uses optical illusions to appear limitlessly deep.  My favorite is a room where items such as furniture become unusually large to make you feel like you have shrunken in size and become a leprechaun yourself.  


The museum claims that it is trying to change the way people view the leprechauns, but I must say it sounds a bit like the side-of-the-road attractions in the hills of the southeast we used to beg my parents to stop at along the way on family road trips.  You know the type with signs every so many feet enticing you to stop with promises of never-before-seen-nor-ever-to-be-seen-again wonders?  I even distinctly remember a room that made you feel that you had shrunken in size, or some such optical trick.


In any event, don't base your personal financial plan on catching a leprechaun.  Top of the morning (actually evening) to you!