Over 100 Scots, near-Scots and wannabe Scots packed Gibsons' Harmony Hall on Saturday, Jan. 27, for the annual Robbie Burns dinner.
Burns suppers were first held at Port Mellon township, and Harmony Hall has hosted the annual event for over 25 years.Over 40 per cent of attendees sported clan or regimental tartans or full highland dress, displaying a few shapely calves and strong Scots male knees. The traditional "piping in of the haggis" kicked off the evening, as piper Don Cadenhead accompanied Graham Wray to present the great steaming sausage to the assemblage.
Reciting Burns' To a Haggis with great gusto, a bad wig and spot-on dialect, Jim McCowatt made the ceremonial first slice into the "proud chieftain of the puddin' race." While almost everyone present took a serving - some closing their eyes and muttering "it's paté, it's paté," others claiming they actually like the stuff - many of the honest Scots present admitted they never touch the offal-and-oatmeal creation.
Eloquent toasts to the Queen, to Scotland, to Canada, to the Bard's memory, to the lassies and the laddies featured an a capella rendition of Scotland Forever and a warning. In his toast to Canada, Jeff Beckmyer noted that conspiracy theorists have been oddly silent on the subject of the Scots.
Citing the preponderance of Scots in Canada's history - from Sir Alexander McKenzie, the first explorer to traverse the continent (a full decade before Lewis and Clark), to Canada's first and many subsequent prime ministers, Beckmyer noted that inventors, scientists, doctors, scholars and writers with Scottish surnames have served their new nation and the world with a strength disproportionate to their numbers.
The evening would not be complete without a rendition of Burns' most famous song (of the more than 300 he penned): Auld Lang Syne.
Ever since their inauguration, the Coast String Fiddlers have been part of the Burns night festivities, and this year participants ranged from the very young Fiddleheads to the most senior graduates. "We've seen them grow up here," said one misty-eyed fan. Displays of Scottish country dance and the traditional sword dance by students of Danceworks Academy gave way to traditional ceilidh dances, starting with the Gay Gordons. Strip the Willow, St. Bernard's Waltz, The Dashing White Sergeant and a Canadian barn dance followed. Younger participants ended the dances with high-fives and cheers; older ones fell gratefully into their chairs as Scots celebrated a heritage spanning two continents and two centuries, embodied by the immortal Robbie Burns.
