First Class EVENTS
Get in the Scottish Spirit
Clockwise: Burns acolytes,
including “Twa Dogs” revelers,
commemorate the poet’s birthday;
ceilidh means it’s the end of the
night; a plate of haggis, neeps and
tatties. Dig in!
W hen cultural traditions traverse the seas, it’s expected that they evolve. Some customs
vanish, others emerge and still others
twist into quirky new shapes. A few
winters ago, having returned from
16 months in bonnie, windswept
Edinburgh, I attempted to sate my
cravings at a Scottish country dance
gathering. The surreal scene that
awaited me in a fluorescently lit North-
ern Virginia community hall com-
prised a friendly, if eclectic, crew of
Scotland enthusiasts, many of whom
had never set foot on “Edin-boro”
soil. The event featured a solitary
kilt, zero lilting accents, several black
crushed-velour dresses, no Belhaven
pints or shortbread biscuits and an
organizer wearing a T-shirt reading
“Yo Quiero Haggis.”
Scotland had never felt so far away.
