Robert Burns

Wherever there are Scots, which is everywhere, January 25th is celebrated as Robert Burns' birthday. And wherever he is, every Scot has his kilt and sporran at the ready. We were lucky to get tickets from a neighbor to the "Burns Ball" put on by the Lagos Caledonian Society. Dress was specified as formal and there I am, ready to go. After being greeted with an array of whisky, of which I enjoyed several shots, we sat down for some ceremony and speeches. This included the entry of the haggis, as immortalized in Burn's "Address to a Haggis" written in 1786. It's a sort of hash traditionally cooked in a sheep stomach. The ceremonial haggis was marched into the hall accompanied by the caterwalling of the bagpipes. After reciting the Address, the Chieftan cut it open with a dagger. Tastes pretty good actually, sort of like the stuffing served for American Thanksgiving.

After numerous toasts to all and sundry, from the Queen right on down, we tucked into a delicious roast beef dinner. The after dinner speeches are governed by tradition and require lots of poetry recitations and good natured ribbing. (if you are at a loss, you can buy handy speeches and toasts here) Then the dancing, despite my total ignorance of Scottish dances, the other guests were very helpful and we joined in. At the break, more bagpipe noise and then we had to get home.

As you can tell, I'm not a big bagpipe fan, something I just don't understand. When a busker playing the pipes had showed up outside our offices in San Francisco, I led a move to collect money to give to him if he would just go away. Thankfully he left after a while on his own. If you insist on ruining a special occasion with a piper, the internet is full of them, like this scary example.