Whisky + Haggis + Dancin' = An Awesome Burns' Night

Robert Burns:  Largely regarded as Scotland's "National Poet", Robert or, "Rabbie" Burns was born before the U.S. even became a country.  I had admittedly never heard of him before coming to Scotland, but you can't walk around Edinburgh, Glasgow, or I suspect any other major Scottish city without running into Burns-themed stuff.  With good reason.  He has quite a few famous poems (as much as poems can be famous), and the lyrics for Auld Lang Syne, which is that song everyone sings to bring in the New Year.  If you listen to it with the lyrics, you'll quickly realize that it is not really in "English," but in Scots, which is a sort of germanic language, sort of English dialect that exists in, you guessed it, Scotland.  But unraveling that distinction is for another blog post!

Burns Night is the celebration of Robert Burns.  It's held every year on Robert Burns' birthday, 25 January, and involves a host of traditions which are lots of fun.  I can't really think of an American holiday to equivocate it to: no one gets off from work, and not everyone celebrates, so it's not like Thanksgiving, but more people observe it than something like Earth Day.  Regardless, there was an event being held at one of the student unions that came highly recommended, so a friend and I decided to check it out.

First was the Piping in of the Guests and the Chairman's Welcome, which as you can probably imagine, involved a bagpiper playing while the main guests entered and then the chairman giving a little sort of speech thing.  This part of the evening was rather formal, since no one had been given any alcohol yet.  Following that, the haggis was brought in while the bagpiper played, and then an address was given to said haggis.  I did not transcribe what was entailed here, but luckily Wikipedia did, so if you're interested in the actual script, here it is.  

Technically we were supposed to toast the haggis after the address, but our Chairman was English and sort of forgot that bit, so we were served our wine before we made our whisky toast.  It was a big decision for me, as I know nothing about wine at all, but I ended up settling on red wine because in my mind everything red should taste like fruit punch or cherry (Hint: it doesn't).  Shortly after, our host remembered that we were to toast the haggis, and I was finally taught how to drink whisky.  Note: this guy could have totally been pulling my leg, I don't know if this is really the way to taste whisky so don't quote me on it or anything:

1. Hold glass in hands to warm whisky up to room temperature
2. Smell it.  Remarkably, tasting whisky is a lot like how I imagine tasting wine to be.
3. Sip it.  Be sure to swish around in mouth to get full range of flavors and to ensure you smell like alcohol for the rest of the night.
4. If you're feeling adventurous, blow over the whisky while in your mouth.  I did not attempt this, and I think it may have been a joke, but what do I know?

I've been told on separate occasions that adding water is good for some whisky as well.  Anyway, by this point, we've all had a dram of whisky and some wine and we're prepared for the food.  A fantastic soup was first (potato and leek), and then Scotland's national dish: Haggis, Neeps & Tatties.  

A bit of an explanation is needed here.  Haggis is made out of gross things no one really wants to know about, traditionally stuffed into a sheep's stomach and simmered for some three hours.  I think most haggis are made in just some sort of plastic casing today, not that it matters because when you're served an individual portion you don't see the outside anyway.  It basically looks like some ground beef with couscous.    Neeps, are a mashed turnip-like vegetable, and tatties are just mashed potatoes.  The latter two, I could care less for, since I've had a vendetta against all mashed foods since my childhood, but haggis is delicious.  

After the haggis, I surprisingly managed to finish off another course - one of the best desserts I've ever had - while entertainment was going on.  In this case, entertainment involved poems by Burns, some funny and some a bit more serious.  Then, the "Immortal Memory," which is a short speech about some aspect of Burns' life, and yet another dram of whisky for a toast.  By this time, most everyone in the hall was in a pleasant mood, and with that began a "Toast to the Lassies".  In the olden days, this was literally supposed to be a toast.  However, in our modern times (and keeping in mind this was a student function), the toast was a bit more tongue-in-cheek.  I recorded part of it, but can't figure out how to get it to just audio, so I'll have to post it later.  Following that, was a rebuttal "Reply from the Lassies," equally tongue-in-cheek, and an ending speech thing before the tables were all pulled up and we went off to the Ceilidh.

Normally, I'd explain the Ceilidh in this post, but since it's already gone on for a bit I'll save that for another time.  To leave you off, here's a video of the lovely piper who entertained us during parts of the supper: