Scots celebrate poet Burns’s anniversary
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AFP
Oluşturulma Tarihi: Ocak 26, 2009 00:00
LONDON - Scots the world over were set to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the birth of national poet Robert Burns on Sunday, while the Edinburgh government kicks off a year of events to boost tourism.
Tens of millions claim Scottish heritage worldwide, and traditional Burns suppers Ñ when Scots eat haggis and toast their "bard" with whiskey Ñ were planned across the world, with the Scottish government seeking to tempt its diaspora back in a year entitled "Homecoming."
Burns's hometown of Alloway in southern Ayrshire on Saturday opened a Scotland-wide program of poetry readings, music and dance to celebrate the life of the author of "Auld Lang Syne."
On Sunday, the Celtic Connections music festival in Glasgow was set to hold a Jamaican Burns Night, highlighting the fact that the poet was set to emigrate to Jamaica before his first book of poems published in 1786 became a success.
And in the evening in Alloway, Scotland's First Minister Alex Salmond will sit down to a traditional Burns Night Supper Ñ the dish of minced sheep's heart, liver and lungs mixed with onion, oatmeal, suet, stock and salt, and boiled in the animal's stomach.
"Burns was a man who spoke for all occasions. A man born of humble rank, whose legacy today goes far beyond riches," Salmond said Saturday. He added: "Over 200 years since his work was written, it has been translated into every known language. And it is as resonant today as it ever was."
Fans of the poet have set up a Web site in a bid to break the world record for the largest simultaneous toast, hoping that hundreds of thousands around the world will raise their glasses to "the immortal memory of Robert Burns" on Sunday evening.
Prince Charles joined Salmond in reading poems for the Burns archive, which is aimed at ensuring that his poems are available to future generations. Born on Jan. 25, 1759, Burns died when he was just 37, but filled his life with bawdy romps through the picturesque hills of Ayrshire and Dumfries which provided the inspiration for much of his work.
Burns's hometown of Alloway in southern Ayrshire on Saturday opened a Scotland-wide program of poetry readings, music and dance to celebrate the life of the author of "Auld Lang Syne."
On Sunday, the Celtic Connections music festival in Glasgow was set to hold a Jamaican Burns Night, highlighting the fact that the poet was set to emigrate to Jamaica before his first book of poems published in 1786 became a success.
And in the evening in Alloway, Scotland's First Minister Alex Salmond will sit down to a traditional Burns Night Supper Ñ the dish of minced sheep's heart, liver and lungs mixed with onion, oatmeal, suet, stock and salt, and boiled in the animal's stomach.
"Burns was a man who spoke for all occasions. A man born of humble rank, whose legacy today goes far beyond riches," Salmond said Saturday. He added: "Over 200 years since his work was written, it has been translated into every known language. And it is as resonant today as it ever was."
Fans of the poet have set up a Web site in a bid to break the world record for the largest simultaneous toast, hoping that hundreds of thousands around the world will raise their glasses to "the immortal memory of Robert Burns" on Sunday evening.
Prince Charles joined Salmond in reading poems for the Burns archive, which is aimed at ensuring that his poems are available to future generations. Born on Jan. 25, 1759, Burns died when he was just 37, but filled his life with bawdy romps through the picturesque hills of Ayrshire and Dumfries which provided the inspiration for much of his work.