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Around the world, haggis is being toasted, bagpipes are being piped and neeps and tatties roasted as Scots celebrate the birthday of Robert Burns.
Known in medieval Celtic culture as a storyteller, verse maker and composer, the word bard is synonymous with the world’s greatest poets, but few are as lauded as Scotland’s Robert Burns, whose birthday was on January 25.
Involving several traditions, such as the
Address to a Haggis, a toast to the poet s memory, and rousing renditions of the bard s many famous poems and songs, Burns Night is not just a Scottish affair. Research by the Centre for Robert Burns Studies and the University of Glasgow found that an estimated 2,500 Burns Night events take place in some 150 countries every year, including as far afield as Antarctica.