One of these days. I am sure it will happen. I will finally attend a Burns Night.Frankly, I have been a bit busy of late and would not have remembered if I had not seen Help revive the Scottish language (or not) in the London Times.
No, Burns Night has nothing to do with blow torches. The Burns in Burns Night refers to Robert Burns, the poet. I have Scottish ancestors on my mother's side and this is a big celebration for the Scots. These dinners feature a haggis. I have never eaten haggis, I know what goes into a haggis, and knowing that I assume three things: 1) here is one of the two reasons my Scottish ancestors invented Scotch (the other being golf), 2) we have no need to expect a wave of Scottish cuisine flooding the world, and 3) I am going to be at disadvantage at Burns Night since I do not drink Scotch. That picture you see here is a haggis (isn't Google images just amazing?).
But haggis has a special relevance to Burns Night because Burns wrote a poem to the haggis. Consider that, a poet writing a poem to a sausage. You can find the poem here - along with a translation. Which I guess brings us back to the London Times article.
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