Burns Night

It's Burns night and in an hour I expect friends to arrive for a celebration of the birthday of the famous Scottish poet Robert Burns.

 This is the day when my Scottish genes start asserting themselves. We will of course be eating haggis. Haggis actually tastes much better than it looks. Earlier today I went out on a successful haggis hunt and the beast is prepared and getting hot, knife is sharpened, 'neeps' prepared to boil and mash, whisky and Burns poetry lined up ready. We may just manage the 1st stanza of Burns' 'Address to a Haggis'.
Fair fa' your honest, sonsie face, 
Great chieftain o' the pudding race! 
Aboon them a' yet tak your place, 
Painch, tripe or thairm: 
Weel are ye' wordy o'a grace 
As lang's my arm.
Just for fun and if you want to know more about haggis take a look at this post (with a pinch of salt).
10 things your never knew about haggis

 If you are celebrating the Conversion of St Paul today, here's an attempt to link that improbably with haggis:
Haggis and Conversion

 Happy Burns Night everyone!



Comments

  1. Kathy25 January 2013 at 18:34

    Happy Burns Night, Nancy, and enjoy your haggis. DH and I love haggis and make a point of having it whenever we go up to Scotland.

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    Replies
    1. Nancy Wallace26 January 2013 at 11:38

      Thanks - we had a great time, finishing off with the best Scottish trifle I have ever tasted, made by one of our guests.

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  2. Ray Barnes25 January 2013 at 23:02

    Two important points which no-one has mentioned are:
    1. Open season on Haggis is dependant on there being a full moon. No moon, no Haggis.

    2. They must by ancient decree be harpooned, no other form of killing is acceptable

    And a little known and seldom recorded fact they must be wearing the kilt.

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    Replies
    1. Nancy Wallace26 January 2013 at 11:41

      Thanks for the information Ray. I can assure you that ours was harpooned by the light of the full moon by a person unknown who may or may not have been wearing the kilt. Another fact I didn't know is that it is illegal to sell traditional haggis in the USA - they have something against sheep's lung apparently. Smuggling over the border from Canada?

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  3. Nancy Wallace26 January 2013 at 11:45

    I underestimated the Scottish guest we invited to wield the knife and address the haggis. He recited every single stanza of Burn's 'Address to the Haggis' (and it is long)from memory with appropriate dramatic gestures.

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