Monday 24 January 2011

Festival of the Week: Burns Night

All pagans enjoy a good festival, so I thought I'd start writing Festival of the Week posts on my blog. And my first Festival of the Week is Burns Night, which is celebrated on 25 January every year.

Burns Night is held to commemorate the birthday of Scotland's national poet Robert Burns (1759-1796). Although it isn't a pagan festival, Robert Burns did a great deal to revive an interest in Scottish legends, traditions, folklore and history.

On Burns Night it is traditional to eat haggis, drink whisky and recite Burns poetry - usually his Address to a Haggis. You can find the words here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/robertburns/works/address_to_a_haggis/

In the UK, most butcher's shops and supermarkets sell haggis around the time of Burns Night. Haggis is normally made out of sheep's offal, onion, oatmeal, suet and spices, all minced and stuffed into a sheep's stomach. If you prefer to make a vegetarian version of haggis at home, here are links to a couple of excellent recipes:
http://www.edinburghguide.com/node/2782
http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/vegetarian-haggis/Detail.aspx

The picture shows The Poems and Songs of Robert Burnsaudio CD. You can also buy The Complete Works of Robert Burns, Containing his Poems, Songs, and CorrespondenceKindle edition from Amazon for just 74p.

Previous related posts:
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2008/01/burns-night.html
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2009/01/mackay-bad-witchs-god-of-week.html
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2008/01/scottish-myths-legends.html


1 comment:

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Nice post
keep posting we all love Robert Burns

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