SUISS Burns Night at Edinburgh’s Ghillie Dhu pub
This summer heralded the beginning of a brand new event for SUISS – our inaugural Burns Supper!
Here in Scotland we have a long-established tradition of celebrating our national bard, Robert Burns, on his birthday. This falls on 25th January, and Rabbie is toasted in time-honoured fashion, with plenty of good company, song, poetry, drink, and tasty food. Here at SUISS, we think that the ploughman poet deserves to be remembered all year long, and so, during our Scottish Literature course, we enjoyed an unusually summery Burns Supper in the gorgeous surroundings of the Ghillie Dhu – one of Edinburgh’s finest traditional pubs.
One o’ the puddin’ race, lookin’ sonsie
The night began with a kilted bagpiper addressing the haggis:
‘Fair fa your honest, sonsie face,
Great chieftain o the puddin-race!’
After this, we tucked in to some seriously delicious haggis, neeps and tatties, and heard one of the directors toast the immortal memory of Burns. Students and the two directors sang and recited a selection of Burns’s poems and songs, as well as the work of some other, more contemporary poets. Well done to all! You certainly got us in the mood for some very energetic Scottish traditional dancing! Have a peek at this picture of our ceilidh moves…
Ceilidh moves from the SUISS team
We rounded the night off with a hearty rendition of Burns’s song of friendship, ‘Auld Lang Syne’. Many thanks to the Ghillie Dhu for a lovely welcome, delicious food, beautiful surroundings, and a great place to dance! And thanks also to our fantastic folk band. We can’t wait for next year’s Burns Night.