Robert Burns (Scotland's poet laureate) Dinner & Ceili

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Scottish & Irish Society
of the Black Hills

Burns Information and traditions
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Ticket Info	Traditional Burns Dinner	About Robbie Burns	Timeline of Events	Our Dinner Menu	What is Haggis?

Robert Burns Dinner Schedule of Events (subject to change)

Gather
The celebrants gather and mingle, catch up on gossip, pore through their Burns editions, and peruse the whisky selection. The chairman or host may make some introductions among the guests, assign some readings, or deliver a few opening remarks.

Meal - Welcome Grace
The celebrants are called to the table, the host offers an opening grace - traditionally The Selkirk Grace - and the soup course is served.

Parade of the Haggis
The evening's highest bit of pomp. The chef, carrying in the haggis, follows the piper - playing Brose & Butter,or some other appropriate tune - in a more or less dignified procession through the hall. The chef lays the haggis, on it's groaning trencher, before the chairman at the high table.

Address to the Haggis
A previously designated reciter reads this poem over the haggis. A guid whisky gill is offered to the piper, chef and reciter, and with alacrity, the haggis is sliced open with the finely honed edge of a ceremonial dirk.

The meal is then served with all its composite courses and copious helpings of guid ale and whisky.

Interval
After the meal there is a brief interval while the table is cleared or the celebrants retire to another room for the rest of the evening's festivities. The chairman needs to keep the guests focused and facilitate the flow of the songs, toasts and poetry that are to follow. Time to refill your glasses!

Song
A good warm-up for the Immortal Memory, a musically inclined guest, or two, may sing a Burns song.

Immortal Memory
The chairman, or designated speaker, delivers the Immortal Memory address. This should be a rather serious and careful consideration of the life and art of Robert Burns. It may be a general, biographical sort of speech, or may address a specific aspect of the Bard's work that is relevant to the particular group of assembled celebrants. This speech should be long-winded enough to remind the guests that this isn't the office Christmas party.. This speech always ends with standing guests, raised glasses and an offered toast to the immortal memory of the Bard of Ayr.

Songs, Music & Readings
Now, in loose order, deftly orchestrated by the chairman, follow the other poems, toasts, songs and addresses of the evening. Celebrants who have arrived with selections to read take their turn entertaining the others. (It always helps if the chairman has some readings selected for guests who have arrived unprepared or who may need a little encouragement.)

Toast To The Lassies
A traditional Burns Night ritual, this toast should be a light-hearted lampoon of the lassies' (few) shortcomings. Illustrations from Burns, or from first hand knowledge of the subject, may be used.

Reply From The Lassies
Always delivered with grace, charm and wit, this savaging of the lads' crude dispositions and social inferiority is always accepted with good humor by the menfolk present.

Toast to ?
No Burns Night is complete without toast requests from the audience.

Songs & Poems
The chairman may play it by ear and keep the readings going as long as the guests are willing and attentive. Alternatively, the evening may evolve into a bacchanal of music, song and dancing. Either are acceptable.

Closing Remarks From The Chairman
When an end to the festivities has finally arrived the chairman should thank the guests for their attendance, good cheer and high spirits. A few reciprocal remarks, or a toast, may be made by one of the celebrants and a vote of thanks offered to the host, chairman, chef, piper, etc.

Auld Lang Syne
The traditional end to any Burns Night - indeed, an appropriate end to any evening spent among the company of friends - is the singing of this sentimental Scottish song. It always helps to have the correct lyrics printed out for the, by now, groggily satisfied celebrants.