Burns Night
Burns Night
Of course this is a Scottish Folk Custom - but widely celebrated in England too, Burns Night commemorates the birthday and ‘immortal memory’ of Robert Burns (1759-1796), the great Scottish poet, Burns Night has virtually displaced St Andrew’s Day as the main national festival.
It all happens on 25 January, when food and drink is the order of the day along with much speech making, singing and readings from the great man’s works. The central dish of the day haggis, a spiced combination of offal, mutton and oatmeal boiled in a sheep’s stomach, which Burns himself called ‘great chieftain o’the pudding race’. This delicacy is normally carried ceremonially into an assembly to the accompaniment of a tune played on the bagpipes, and the evening concludes with the singing of Auld Lang’s Syne, possibly the bard’s most well-known song.
This page is part of our Beginners’ Guide: British Folk Customs From Plough Monday to Hocktide.
