"Should auld acquaintance be forgot, and never brought to mind? Should auld acquaintance be forgot, and days of o'lang syne?
Robert Burns
Today is Robert Burns birthday. He was a Scottish poet and lyricist and regarded as the national poet of Scotland. I'm sure all of you recognize the line from the song above....we sing it every year!
He is celebrated the world over on or around his birthday in a variety of ways. We were invited again this year to dance at the Burns Night celebration at St. Pauls Church in Bremerton. I wasn't able to get any pics of us dancing....kinda hard to do while dancing. But I'll share a few I took of other things.
Music is always a part of Burn parties. The Tacoma Scots Pipe Band played and were fantastic. I'm actually not a big fan of the bagpipes but something about the intimacy of the event made it wonderful to me.
The "presenting of the haggis" is a highlight of the evening. I've seen this done with a lot of "pomp and circumstance" but at St. Pauls its done simply.
You'd think after all these years in Scottish Country dance I'd know the history behind all the traditions of Burns Night celebrations but I don't. If you're asking yourself "wassup with the haggis", you're gonna have to google it yourself. :) I do know Burns wrote a poem called "Address to the Haggis" and it relates to strong Scottish pride of his time. But then everything is about Scottish pride!
Bruce (one of our dancers) and Hubby were the "presenters".
The Tacoma Scots Pipe band brought this young dancer with them and she performed two highland dances. This was the start of the sword dance.
A young harpist played two songs for us. He was really good.
2 comments:
lovely post. One of these years I want to come with you guys and photograph the dancing for you!
The daisy's for simplicity and unaffected air. ~Robert Burns
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