The third week of the Great Canadian Kilt Skate finds more Canadians celebrating Scottish heritage on the nearby outdoor ice where they can safely skate socially distanced. For the third week in a row (and her 18th skate so far this winter), the ever-enthusiastic Cathy Laver-Wright was flying the flags proudly on Winnipeg’s Centennial River Trail.
Read MoreEach year, we look forward to the Tutored Whisky Tasting that Emmett Hossack organizes on behalf of the Scottish Society of Ottawa (SSO). It’s held on the Sunday closest to the feast day of St. Andrew, patron saint of Scotland, and it serves as the launch of SSO’s two-month long Scottish Festival. This year, the weekend also corresponds with the opening of the City of Ottawa refrigerated outdoor rinks. Since the Lansdowne Skating Court. is just a few hundred yards from the tutored whisky tasting at Milestones Grill, it was also a perfect opportunity to begin this winter’s kilt skating.
Read MoreIn past years, Bryan Lyall organized a full Burns dinner for the Scottish Society of Ottawa (SSO), complete with remembering the Immortal Memory, toasts to Lassies and, of course, the Address to the haggis. This year, with Brian away on other responsibilities, we gathered for the fun and the fare at The Highlander Pub, where anyone wearing tartan gets a complementary dram.
Read MoreSo this weekend, let's feel for all the wee and slicket timorous beasties. Let's ponder how the best laid plans o' mice and men gang aft a-gley. Let's try to see ourselves as others see us. Let's acknowledge that that the finest hours that e'er we spend are spent among the lasses-o. Let's drink a cup of kindness yet for auld lang syne. Let's be thankit because we hae meat and we can eat. Let's celebrate the man of independent mind who looks and laughs at a' that. Let's keep our hearts in the highlands, a-chasing the deer. Let's cherish our loves -- the red red roses, newly sprung in June. And let's admit that, had we never lov'd sae kindly, and had we never lov'd sae blindly, and never met—or never parted -- we had ne'er been broken-hearted.
Read MoreThis is the weekend where it is dangerous to be a "great chieftan o the puddin' race." Tonight around the world, Scots will honour the great national poet, Robbie Burns. One of the highlights of the evening will be the "Address to a Haggis" in which the knife is plunged into the poor beastie, "Trenching your gushing entrails bright."
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across canada, communities host kilt skates to celebrate scotland’s contribution to our multicultural fabric.
