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It’s January 25th: Time for a Burns Supper!
And after dessert, we’ll join hands and sing “Auld Lang Syne.”
If you thought Auld Lang Syne was just for New Year’s Eve, think again. In Scotland tonight, and for anyone of Scottish heritage, it’s time to honor the country’s most famous native son, poet Robert Burns, who was born on this day in 1759, and who’s perhaps best known for having written what The Guinness Book of World Records calls “one of the top three most popular songs in the entire English language.”
Scots around the world will be honoring their national bard with festive gatherings of friends for a traditional supper: They’ll be eating haggis, bashed neeps and mashed tatties (that is, sheep’s entrails, turnips and potatoes), and they’ll be toasting “Rabbie” with their best Scotch whisky while quoting from his poetry and songs. (For those who don’t drink alcohol, there’s Irn Bru, a carbonated beverage often called “Scotland’s other national drink.”)
Burns loved to eat Scotland’s national dish — and even wrote eight verses about it, Address to a Haggis, which begins:
Fair fa’ your honest, sonsie face, / great chieftain o’ the puddin-race!
At any Burns Night Supper, someone will recite that one before the meal.