Happy Birthday, Rabbie Burns!!

On Saturday night, Cat and Mike invited us to celebrate Burns Night.

Burns Night is the annual celebratory tribute to the life, works and spirit of the great Scottish poet, Robert Burns (1759-1796). Celebrated on, or about, the Bard's birthday, January 25th, Burns Suppers range from stentoriously formal gatherings of esthetes and scholars to uproariously informal rave-ups of drunkards and louts. Most Burns Suppers fall in the middle of this range, and adhere, more or less, to some sort of time honoured form which includes the eating of a traditional Scottish meal, the drinking of Scotch whisky, and the recitation of works by, about, and in the spirit of the Bard.

Before the meal, I read the Slekirk's Grace:

Some hae meat but canny eat

And some wad eat but want it

But we hae meat and we can eat

And say the Laird be thankit

THen we ate the traditional first course of soup.

As you can see, I was quite happy when the main course arrived - the haggis!!  I've never seen one that big!

Mike then proceeded to Address the Haggis.  I couldn't understand much of what he was saying but the theatrics were great.  I found the address and it's translation HERE

At the end, Mike stabs the haggis to open it up and we all burst into applause.

Haggis, neeps and tatties.  It was delicious.

Next up - Jerry had to make a toast "To the Lassies".  

After eating we took a little game break for Cards Against Humanity.

I've been pretty good at holding it all together but Ann Maria kept saying, "It's your last Saturday!!"

We played...

and we sprinkled Burns poems in randomly.  For an Englishman, Mike had a great Scottish brogue.

You may be wondering about these unfamiliar faces - Caroline and Ralph.  We've met them a few times when we've gone to other quiz events (she organizes the one at the Frontline).  Unfortunately she wasn't as entertained by the card game and at one point refused to read one because it was too rude (a phrase that I'm sure neither Jerry nor I have ever used - - TOO rude?).  Despite her prudishness she took the lead in the first round and made sure we knew it.  Then they left at midnight when we decided to spice up the game with our own write in answers.  If she thought the cards in the box were bad, we took it to a whole other level.

This was a selfie gone awry.  But check out Bill's new shirt from Paris!  

It turns out that Cat is an actual descendent of Robert Burns - - Her great great great etc grandfather was  his brother.  So she did The Immortal Memory which is supposed to be a personal tribute to Burns that is made when the whiskey comes out.  

I think Bill and I need to host a Burns Supper next year - we can't offer Haggis (it's still illegal in the states but I found THIS Guardian article about searching for some on the US black market) but we can offer whiskey, horrible accents, poetry and pomp.  Who's in??