Robert Burns’ Night Celebrations
All over Scotland this weekend and in ex-patriot Scottish communities around the world, the tradition of celebrating Robert Burns’ birthday will have taken place. Burns is the adopted national poet for Scotland, with many famous works including Auld Lang Syne and A Red, Red Rose. He was born on the 25th of January 1759 in Ayr on the south west coast of Scotland.
Celebrations of his birthday are light hearted events with much eating (of haggis) and the drinking of whisky, followed by assorted renditions of his works. This first (fly-on-the-wall) video is typical of a ceremonial arrival of the cooked haggis, ready to be eaten:
Following on from that, some thanks are normally offered to the supposedly now deceased and mythical creature, the haggis, in the form of Robert Burns’ Address to a Haggis, an example of which can be seen in the next video:
What is a haggis? Wikipedia describes it as consisting of “sheep’s ‘pluck’ (heart, liver and lungs), minced with onion, oatmeal, suet, spices, and salt, mixed with stock, and traditionally boiled in the animal’s stomach for approximately three hours.” Fortunately a vegetarian version is also available these days!