She grew up in the old Glasgow and still speaks in a lilting Scottish accent after 10 years in Canada, but on Saturday night, Julie Dignan truly came home.
She joined hundreds of other Scottish Canadians in New Glasgow, celebrating poet extraordinaire Robert Burns by reciting his Address to a Haggis poem, just after the feast itself was marched in by bagpipers in kilts.
“Like every true Scot, he holds a special place in our hearts, so this is a very, very emotional evening for us,” said Dignan. “We grew up with all the poems and the songs and we really love him.”
As well as the haggis and bagpipers, Burns Night partygoers enjoyed Scotch whiskies, fiddle playing and plenty of tartan attire.
The first Burns gathering took place when nine of the poet's friends decided to gather in the cottage where he was born in Alloway, Scotland on July 21, 1796, the date of his death.
The party’s wish was to offer tribute to the memory of a departed genius. They decided to honour Burns on what they thought was the anniversary of his birthday, on Jan. 29th, 1802.
However, the following year they discovered in the Ayr Parish Records that the true date was in fact Jan. 25th. Since then, celebrations have taken place on, or around, the historic day of Robert Burns’ birth.
Two centuries later, millions of Scots in the old country and around the world celebrate their national bard’s birthday.
It is part of a long history of both triumph and suffering for Scottish people, a heritage that Dignan wants to preserve for her children, who were just babies when the family moved to Canada.
“It’s very important to me that I keep the connection up there, just so that the kids remember where they’re from and where their roots are,” said Dignan.
Remembering one’s roots was also important for Gordon Sutherland, whose grandparents came from Edinburgh, Scotland’s historic capital.
He told The News that his father was a bagpiper at the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City, and was an international bagpipe champion back home in Canada.
“My mother was a highland dancer, that’s how my father met her,” said Sutherland.
His parents met when his father was instructing a pipe band in Quebec. The couple passed their love of bagpiping down to their children.
“We’re all bagpipers and we really follow our Scottish roots and I‘d just like to say that I’m really privileged to be invited to the Robbie Burns [dinner] here tonight,” said Sutherland.
