Burn's Night

Burn's Night was celebrated here on the ship on January 25th. I was already familiar with this Scottish festival through Heike, as she once invited the department group to get to know this Scottish tradition.

On this day, the Scots commemorate their poet Robert Burns, whom they greatly admire and who wrote the lyrics for the song 'Auld Lang Syne', which is sung both on New Year's Eve and as the last song at the 'Last Night of the Proms' in the London Royal Albert Hall. The food on this holiday is special: there is a soup and then haggis, a type of sausage filled with a ragout of innards.

So on this evening, there was also the traditional 'haggis' to eat in the restaurant, if one wanted, and in the ballroom, a small official ceremony was held to commemorate the Scottish poet Burns. There was the 'haggis' parade, in which three chefs brought the dish in on a silver tray, followed by a man dressed in a Scottish kilt who delivered a speech in 'Scottish/Gaelic (?)', of which I didn't understand much, only fragments. Dramatically, he repeatedly stabbed the haggis with a large knife and proposed a toast to Robert Burns. Then, the ship's ballet group performed Scottish dances and finally, everyone joined hands crossed and we all sang 'Auld Lang Syne', whose lyrics I had learned beforehand. It had been requested that everyone wear something made of Scottish fabric, which most guests did, some as dresses or skirts/blouses, or just as a sash, and some men wore formal Scottish kilts. The uniform look was quite beautiful.

I took a few snapshots from the balcony of the ballroom.

Contents