Robert Burns Night Tomorrow – Are You Celebrating?

Introduction: In this article, Melissa Davenport Berry describes how Burns Night – honoring the Scottish poet Robert Burns – has been celebrated for over 200 years; “Auld Lang Syne” indeed! Melissa is a genealogist who has a website, americana-archives.com, and a Facebook group, New England Family Genealogy and History.

Robert Burns (1759-1796), the celebrated Scottish bard of the 18th century who penned the lyrics to “Auld Lang Syne,” has been memorialized every January 25th for more than 200 years.

For auld lang syne, my dear,
For auld lang syne.
We’ll take a cup of kindness yet,
For auld lang syne.

–Robert Burns, 1788

Note: The literal translation of the Scots-language “auld lang syne” is “old long since,” i.e., “days gone by” or “times long past.”

Fans of the man known as the “national poet of Scotland” make merry and pay homage on the anniversary of his birth with a night of dancing, feasting, drinking, and rhapsodizing their beloved Romantic ploughman poet.

The annual event is known as “Burns Night” – or in Scottish Gaelic “Oidhche na Taigeise” – and the date always falls on or around the birth of Robert Burns, which occurred on 25 January 1759. The first celebration came in 1801, and the tradition is still very much alive.

The gathering includes features like bagpipers, haggis (a savory Scottish dish of minced sheep’s offal, oatmeal, suet, and spices, traditionally cooked in a sheep’s stomach), the Selkirk Grace (prayer of thanks), the Immortal Memory (honoring Burns), Highland dancers, and sometimes boy drivers to take the party tipplers home in wheelbarrows.

Here are some past celebrations of Robert Burns Night in America.

University Club of New York Celebrates Burns Night

Here are photos of the University Club of New York celebrating Burns Night. (There is a link at the end of this article on how to become a member of the Club, and how to purchase tickets for the annual Burns Night event.)

1901 Celebration of Burns Night in Montana

The Daily Inter Mountain covered a lively celebration of Burns Night in Butte, Montana, in 1901.

This article reports:

The 142d anniversary of the birth of Robert Burns was celebrated yesterday in Butte in various ways, but last night the Scots gave expression of their love for the poet and native land at the Auditorium. Sweet voices warbled the songs of the bard and bonnie lassies danced the Highland fling to the strains of the bagpipes. The merits of Robert Burns were extolled from eloquent lips and the mantle of charity was thrown over the faults which too often afflict men with great hearts. The entertainment was supplemented with a dance, and this concluded, covers were laid for about 200 people, who enjoyed and relished the great dish of the Scots, known as “haggis.” Altogether, a Scotch festival is one that any man can attend and wonder how life can be made so pleasant.

The featured photographs include three lassies who performed “Highland fling” dances: Miss Grace King, Tena McDonald, and Lillie Skillicorn. They performed to the tune of pipers which included Master Alex Smith.

1922 Celebration of Burns Night in Colorado – Minus the Whisky

Tickets were selling briskly for the celebration of Burns Night in Colorado in 1922, hosted by the Caledonian Society. Because of prohibition the event would be lacking the traditional whisky – but the haggis would be there, and a good time was expected for all.

This article reports:

Prohibition has not diminished the popularity of the Burns banquet judging from the sale of tickets for the banquet tomorrow night at the Broadmoor hotel marking the one hundred sixty-third anniversary of the poet’s birth. Some years ago when prohibition came into effect there were not lacking pessimists who prognosticated the collapse of the famous Burns celebrations, but on the contrary they have proved more popular than ever.

1948 Celebration of Burns Night in Washington, D.C.

The photo caption reads:

With α lavishness belying the Scottish reputation for frugality, members of the St. Andrew’s Society celebrated the 189th birthday of Robert Burns at a banquet and dance. One of the sets of bagpipes on hand for the occasion is admired by Dr. David Daiches, [a Scottish literary historian, scholar and writer] who spoke on Burns; Sir Robert Alexander Watson-Watt, C.B., F.R.S, who extended greetings from Scotland; and the Rev Dr. Peter Marshall, president of the society.

1959 Celebrations of the 200th Anniversary of Robert Burns’ Birth

In 1959 the 200th anniversary of Burns’ birth was celebrated around the world. Clans and lodges in Boston and surrounding areas had Burns bashes. A photo of Burns’ birthplace – a thatched-roof cottage in Alloway, a village near Ayr, Scotland – was published by the Patriot Ledger.

Here is a photo from the Boston Library Archives featuring clans from Holyoke and Springfield, Massachusetts, who honored Burns in 1959.

Robert Burns’ Legacy

Burns’ personal life was scandalous and his appetite for lovely ladies left a trail. As the proof is in the pudding, he fathered at least 12 children – and some were not by his wife.

According to The Scotsman, as many as 900 of his relatives have been identified by genealogical researchers, and some of them are quite remarkable. The designer Tommy Hilfiger is among them. This subject is for another story.

Burns was admired by many, including Winston Churchill and Abraham Lincoln. He inspired famous novelists, such as John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men and J. D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye. He also served as the etheric muse for Bob Dylan, among others.

Burns’ reputation is international, with statues of him all over the world, like this one in Winthrop Square, Boston, Massachusetts (the statue was moved back to its original location in the Back Bay Fens in 2019).

His likeness has also appeared on banknotes, cigar ads, whiskey promotions, postage stamps, and Coca Cola bottles.

Check out The American-Scottish Foundation.

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Note on the header image: Robert Burns Monument in Dorchester Square, Montréal, Québec, Canada. Credit: Emdx; Wikimedia Commons.