Burns Supper - 24-01-2009
Well, if you weren’t there, you missed the best Burns Supper of the year.
The guests arrived to tunes on the fiddle by Angus MacDonald and Chairman of the Burns Supper, Richard Cruse, presented the evening which started with a traditional Highland Dance by Rona Brown. This was a Seann Triubhas, pronounced “shawn troose”. The dance is believed to have originated from the Jacobite Rebellion of 1745 in which, Bonnie Prince Charlie challenged the might of England at Culloden. He lost the battle, and as a consequence the Highlanders were banned from wearing kilts which, along with bagpipes, were considered by the English as instruments of war. Anyone who’s seen Braveheart will understand how they were used! Not so much the kilts themselves, rather what’s underneath!
Without their kilts, the highlanders had to turn to wearing trousers but, because of a tartan fabric fashion craze in London (rien ne change), the laws were repealed and the Highlanders were allowed to return to their original dress. The Seann Triubhas was created as a dance of celebration. The movements of the dance depict the legs defiantly shaking and shedding the hated trousers, to return to the freedom of the kilt. "Seann Triubhas" is a Gaelic phrase which means "Old or Unwanted Trousers".
With this dance in prospect, how could the Chairman not turn up in a kilt? And I want you to know, he was “correctly” dressed.
There was then a demonstration of dances by the Strasbourg Scottish Country Dancers, including an “Alasdair Hunter Reel”, before we all said the Selkirk Grace and sat to eat the traditional barley broth.
In a break with tradition, the real Alasdair Hunter and Lisa Williams have us a “double act” of the Toast to the Lassies and the usual Response. This entailed the male/female competing views of how to prepare a haggis. In the absence of a sheep’s stomach, Lisa was required to use a ladies stocking and took one which was to hand, or at least to leg. She then added the contents and invited Alasdair to present his method. Alasdair, of course, knows the truth of the Haggis which is a rare indigenous creature of Scotland. He demonstrated the “drunken gait” necessary for hunting the haggis which, as all Scots know, takes advantage of the Haggii (the correct plural term) inability to see moving targets. Having “caught” his haggis the pair went off to the kitchen to cook.
A few minutes later the Chieftain, borne by M. Schwoob, was piped into the hall by our pipers Yannick and Dimitri and, following Alasdair’s Address to the Haggis, the main course of Traditional or Vegetarian Haggis (direct from Macsween, the most famous haggis maker in the world) warm, reekin’ rich, wi’champit tatties and bashed neeps, was served.
Once the wines provided were exhausted, additional drinks were taken at the bar, which was provided by the Aumonerie Anglicaine de Strasbourg.
Further entertainment was provided by Sheila Roberts and the Strasbourg Scottish Country Dancers and the pipers, Yannick, Dimitri, and Silvere.
The final and formal part of the proceedings was completed by Richard Thayer in giving the toast to The Immortal Memory of Robert Burns. His rendition of “Hear Red, Red Rose” in Russian was particularly moving.
We were again indebted to Sheila Roberts for her calling of the dances in the Ceilidh which followed lasting well into the night. Although not Hogmanay (New Year) we closed the ceilidh with Auld Lang Syne at midnight but the hardened dancers and drinkers opened it again and went on into the wee hours.
Once again, thanks for all those who helped in the organisation and particularly to Alasdair and Liz Hunter.
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