12 January, 2021
Burns Night
Burns Night is usually a raucous affair full of drinking, dancing and feasting. We may not be able to gather together this year, but here’s how to celebrate lockdown-style!
Hosting a Burns Night supper is the perfect antidote to the cold, winter January nights. Whether you’re a house-share, family, couple or individual, it’s an excuse to deck the table/yourself in tartan, cook up a feast and pour a few whiskies to the Scottish Bard.
The Burns Night Supper tradition is long-running. Going back some 200 years from just after Robert Burns’ death in 1796, it started when nine of his friends decided to gather in the Alloway cottage where he was born, to ‘offer tribute to the memory of the departed genius’ on the date of his death, 21st July. The first official Burns Club was founded in Greenock in 1801 by a band of Ayrshire-born merchants, several of whom had known Burns. They formally decided to honour him on what they thought was the anniversary of his birthday, January 29th 1802.
A traditional Burns Supper has bagpipe music, whisky, tartan, haggis, storytelling, singing, dancing, poetry, toasting and feasting, all of which can be scaled up or down depending on your household. All you need is to spruce up your decor to get in the Scottish spirit and throw on your finest tartan, but here’s a few tips to really do Rabbie Burns proud…
Table / Room Decorations
Anything evoking bonny Scotland – tartan, sprigs of heather or thistles, and lots of candles for that winter feel. You could even choose some in the colours of the Scottish flag, blue and white.
What to Wear
Tartan, tartan, and more tartan!
What to Drink
Whisky is the long-standing Burns Night tipple, but if that’s not your thing then get your hands on some Scottish ale which Rabbie was just as partial to. If you’re alcohol-free then get your hands on the soft drink Irn-Bru aka Scotland’s ‘other national drink’, which even has its own tartan!
Irn Bru tartan: National Records of Scotland
What to Eat
The star of the show is the haggis – the traditional Scottish sausage made from sheep’s innards minced with onion, oatmeal, suet and spices – served with mashed tatties (potato) and neeps (swede). For vegetarians you can find recipes for veggie haggis, made with fresh vegetables, oats, seeds, onions and spices. An alternative option if haggis doesn’t float your boat is another Scottish favourite, steak pie.
For starters, go for a hearty winter soup – Cock a Leekie (leeks, chicken and rice/barley), Cullen Skink (smoked fish, leeks and potato), or Scotch Broth (bones, vegetables and barley – can be varied depending on what you have to hand or made with vegetable stock instead).
If you’re going the whole hog and doing three courses, dessert could be Cranachan (raspberries, cream, oats and whisky) or Clootie Dumpling (a steamed spiced fruit pudding).
The Burns Night Supper usually follows a certain order, with various toasts, songs and poems sprinkled throughout the meal before the tables are cleared to make way for dancing. If you don’t know the order by heart then you’re in luck! We’ll be live streaming our own Burns Night extravaganza hosted by Sam Lee – complete with ceilidh music from the Ceilidh Liberation Front to reel around the room to, poems and traditional toasts, storytelling, and songs from Alasdair Roberts, Adam Beattie, Burd Ellen, Ewan McLennan, Iona Fyfe, Namvula and Rachel Newton.
So lay the table, prep your feast, pour the whisky, don your finest tartan and join us in celebrating ol’ Rabbie Burns on Monday January 25th. We won’t be together in person, but we’ll be do-si-doing together in spirit. Slàinte Mhath!
Join our Burns Night free live stream on January 25th
