Robert Burns Night A TRADITIONAL SCOTTISH CELEBRATION
Story by Joan McLendon Budd and Marian Carcache
Many southerners can attribute much of their culture and tradition to Scottish ancestry – a subject we hope to explore more in depth in a later issue. But for now, we’re focusing on a very special Scottish tradition – Robert Burns Night - considered Scotland’s second national day, St. Andrew’s Day being the first. For over 200 years, Burns Night has been celebrated on his birthday (January 25th) and usually includes an evening of dining and merry making, which often can get a little raucous as the evening wears on with the recitation of Burns’s poems and tributes, and the refreshing of drams of Scotch whiskey. But while Burns Night is clearly a national Scottish tradition, it’s also celebrated annually around the world. Many of you may have even hosted a Burns Night dinner … or at least been privileged to attend one. And while this writer has never had the privilege of either, the
42 | Winter 2023
publisher and editors of Magnolia and Moonshine were treated to a formal Scottish dinner last summer in a remote Scottish country house located in the Cairngorms mountain range in the eastern Highlands of Scotland. That magical evening became the inspiration for this article. If you’ve never attended a Burns Night, then you should know that the occasion has a prescribed order of events that are customarily followed. The evening begins with a bagpiper in traditional Scottish attire (including kilt, sporran, and ghillie brogues), piping the guests into the dining room. When all have arrived, the hosts’ welcome is followed by Burns’s own words as the official blessing for the meal: “Some hae meat and canna eat, And some wad eat that want it, But we hae meat and we can eat, Sae let the Lord be thankit.”
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