On January 25, people of Scottish descent often celebrate Burns Night. An homage to the poet Robert Burns, it involves a great deal of whiskey, haggis, poetry, and entertainment. It isn't a Pagan or Wiccan celebration, so why mention it at all? Well, because Burns wrote some magnificent stuff that remains popular today in the Wiccan and Pagan communities, that's why. His narratives of Halloween, Lammastide, and the tale of John Barleycorn are classics, and we're still reciting them centuries later. This year marks the 254th anniversary of Burns' birth, so if you get a chance to attend a Burns' night celebration, hie thee off to the party! Robert Burns, 1759 - 1796.
Want to host a Burns Supper of your own? Here's how: A Night with Rabbie Burns
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Want to host a Burns Supper of your own? Here's how: A Night with Rabbie Burns
Follow Pagan/Wiccan on Twitter or Join Me On Facebook!
And the US just lifted the ban on imported haggis. Though I won’t be running right out to get some, I am sure loads of peeps are thrilled about that!
I’ve had haggis….ewwww! I had it at a Burns Night and Scottish Toast to the Haggis dinner celebration once….Sheeps innards in a sheeps stomach spiked heavily with cloves (probably to cover the smell as well as the taste) just did not sit too well with me.
But, at least I tried it.
This is why I have a bottle of 15-year-old Laphraoig single malt hanging around; we’ll be sipping a wee dram of it tonight in Robbie’s honor!
Just waiting for the bell to sound for our work mini-Burns Night celebration! My family are Scots born-and-bred, so I’ve grown up with haggis, and it always reminds me of absent friends and family.
Also, it’s damn tasty
We always have a Burns’ Night celebration with the Girl Guides. It doesn’t always fall on the 25th, but we make do. The girls tell me that they don’t have to memorise a poem anymore in school, which is a shame. There was a competition in my day, and my mum was forever making me recite them all to her. Easy for her to say, she’s had Tam O’Shanter memorised since she was eight!