Robbie Burns Day

Not having had too many opportunities in our lives to celebrate our Scottish culture, Garnet and I took the opportunity available to us, this past weekend, and went on a date to our first ‘Robbie Burns Supper’. It was an incredible night of Scottish tradition and culture.I was VERY excited and had unbridled enthusiasm for every part of the evening. Although my man found the bagpipes loud I was carried away by them. The dancers where amazing, from the very traditional, modernized to the folk dancers. There where wee girls up to senior men performing for us. One little boy in his kilt and diaper kept following his older sisters around (they where performing) and he was just too cute to even describe! When the Scottish elders where piped in I was more then into the clapping, then the haggis was piped in and I was bursting while I clapped.

I was honestly looking forward to trying haggis for the first time! Here was my chance to dive into true Scottish tradition! Listening to the ode to the haggis had me grinning from ear to ear… right up until I tried it. It was… alright… not being able to smell apparently was an advantage for me but honestly it wasn’t nearly as bad as I had always imagined. I had assumed you had to have the steal strength and fire-y disposition of a true SCOT to be able to handle it but it wasn’t so bad.

The highlight of the whole evening was when the folk dancers asked for volunteers. I had tried to get my man out dancing to one of their events only weeks before and it hadn’t worked out. He had a look of horror while I had a look of joy… here was my chance! I jumped out of my seat and had him on the dancing floor before he knew what hit him. They call out the instructions very clearly so although it was the very first time we had danced together in public we did alright. I learned to avoid his toe crushing feet (he needs to work on that for my sake) and he learned to guide me… I laughed so hard when he ran me into another lady (whose husband was as nervous as mine) and I told him ‘you are supposed to lead dear.’ his look of surprise told me we really where TRUE amateurs at this! Oh but we both laughed as we did our best. He had to admit by the time we where done that it was great fun. I found it purely romantic to dance and laugh so heartily with my Scottish man.