Burn’s Night 2009
2009 marks the 250th anniversary of Rabbie Burn’s birth and has also been designated the year of “Homecoming Scotland” with a year long celebration of Scottish culture.
In January 2009 over 3600 separate, officially registered, Burns night suppers were held in over 80 countries and the celebration has continued with suppers being held for visitors to Scotland all year long. And while this is a big year for the bard, let’s consider for a moment how many suppers were held in the two centuries before it became a media event. The charm of this event is that it is basically a simple celebration of a simple man with an extraordinary talent, and it is because of this simplicity that the tradition has survived. This year has seen suppers held for thousands, prepared by high caliber chefs, attended by heads of state and political dignitaries. Months of thought and preparation went into the menus, the entertainment, the table settings, speeches, music selections, media coverage, and advertisement. Yet there were untold numbers of small gatherings of families and friends, in homes, pubs and even mountain top picnics, all celebrating the same man and his poems and songs.
One of the participants at the Burns night 2009, held in January at my home, remarked a few days afterwards that he found it interesting that this celebration of a poet could have endured for so long a time. He wondered what inspired such devotion; surely Shakespeare, Wordsworth, Tennyson, Yeats and a multitude of other gifted poets have produced works worthy of celebration. There is, however, no single night set aside for each of these men, and there I think lies the difference. Burns night is indeed about his poetry and his songs but beyond the appreciation of these gifts there is the essence of the man. Rabbie, as he is so affectionately referred to by his countrymen, was a man of the people. His works reflect the daily life of the common man and yet he was also celebrated by the societal elite. He was not a highly educated or refined man; indeed he was a heavy drinker, a philanderer who fathered a number of illegitimate children, and a failure at several other careers. He never pretended to be someone he was not, and his fans brook no pretense either. Instead on the night dedicated to him every year he is commemorated by an evening of music, drink, food, and hilarious fun, a more fitting tribute could not be arranged!
