Event: United Kingdom

Burns Night

When:	25 Jan 2008 (annual)
Where:	Scotland

O what a glorious sight,
Warm-reekin, rich!

The poet, Robert Burns (1759-1796), was referring here to a haggis - the traditional fare at a Burns Night Supper - an event you can create yourself as long as you can buy some whisky, dance a reel and recite some poetry.

Scots all over the world join in this annual tribute to Scotland's champion of the common man, Rabbie Burns, whose birthday was the 25 January - hence the date for the Burns Night celebration.

Robert Burns is remembered the world over by Scots for his open-mindedness and tolerance and for his evocation of the Scot as an hospitable, fearless and honest kind of fellow. His verses gave a newfound pride to the Scottish people in the years after Scotland's Union with their bullish neighbhours, while Burns' poetic use of Lowland Scottish dialect helped to encourage a national pride in Scottish language, traditions and history.

More importantly, he wrote some great poetry including the ubiquitous New Year ditty Auld Lang Syne, My love is like a red, red rose and many other poems including Address to a Haggis quoted above. It is his verses which provide a backbone to any Burns Night Supper along with the key ingredients of haggis (a sheep's stomach stuffed with lamb, beef, barley and spices and the best variety is a MacSween) and Scottish water (aka whisky).

Inaugurating a Burns Night is easy. If you decide to be the host, all you need is a Chairman who reads the Address (a small speech regarding the life, works or spirit of the great poet), some celebrants (anyone you'd like to invite) and your victuals (preferably cooked by someone who knows how to make 'neeps' (mashed turnips - how hard can that be?). Once you've assembled these key ingredients, you're set for a wonderful night at home with friends, drinking, dancing and reciting poetry. (You're supposed to enter the dining room with the sound of bagpipes singing, but most of us don't know a bagpiper and the recording will always do).

Burns Suppers range from steely and formal gatherings of scholars and windbags to a student hovel with a vegetarian hotpot in place of the haggis with inebriated invitees shouting the Bard's verse. So anything you do will be an improvement on either! Everyone should bring along a wee dram and a poem they'd like to read out. And if you're really keen you could trace your ancestry back to a Scottish clan, buy their tartan kilt and wear it. Better still, invite someone who knows how to dance a Scottish reel because there's really nothing better than to whirl about the room on the arm of a handsome kilted partner!

Just so you know you won't be the only person enjoying this bizarre celebration, my research found people all over the US, Canada (Nova Scotia obviously), New Zealand, Australia, the Caribbean, the Pacific and all over the UK preparing for their annual whisky drinking fest. Not to mention those in the Baltic States (including Kosovo), Andorra, Fiji, Trinidad, Shanghai andSurinam. If you don't believe me then check out Scotweb's list of Burns Clubs which lists at least 2000 of them. You can find Burns' Complete Works online care of the Burns Club in Milwaukee. Probably the best place to find protocol, recipes, poems and addresses for your Supper would be Bennett Fischer's excellent site.