From BreakingNews.ie: "Up to one million shoppers could hit Dublin city centre today in the hunt for last-minute Christmas presents."

Note that Dublin City has a population of half a million people (1 million in the Dublin urban area).

...and I've just been out there.

Not for Christmas presents, because this year I've been incredibly organized and probably for the first time in a decade at least I've bought all my presents before Christmas (and in fact several days in advance). For food and for a couple of things I'll need on retreat.

I now probably have more food than I can eat before going away on the 26th, but I decided that despite not celebrating Christmas I would definitely not run the risk of feeling sorry for myself for not having something nice to eat on the day -- some things are just too ingrained in the culture to feel safe about ignoring them, and of course that's the only day of the year where I wouldn't be able to do some emergency shopping if I found myself short. On the whole, the mistake is probably going away on the 26th -- but the particular bunch of buddhists I'm going with seem to be Irish first and buddhists second, and Christmas is sacred.