If there is one thing that most Scots like more than most, its an excuse for a party, and naturally if you are gay and Scottish you will probably want to do that with even more energy and booze (etc) than the rest. Just when they have about recovered from Hogmanay (the exhausting way that Scots see the New Year in) it’s time for a biggie in their calendar : the annual Burns Night Celebration.
On the 25th January every year they celebrate the Birthday of their revered national poet Robert Burns …… this year he would have been 258 years old. As well as a time to celebrate the man and his work ( he wrote My Love Is Like A Red Red Rose etc) it’s also a great excuse to eat haggis, drinks loads of whisky, recite poems and dance. Not to mention listening to all those bagpipes. Trust us, if you do eat the haggis (which you really do not want to know what it is made off!) you will need a great many ‘nips’ of whisky to drown the lingering taste.
This is a night when Scots don their kilts made in the tartan of the Clan that their family belong too, and which are a far cry from the ones that have been adopted as a kind of fetish wear by certain gay men. If the dancing gets out of control and the man get too enthusiastic doing the Highland Fling, then you will finally get the bare facts of the age-old myth about what Scotsmen wear under their kilts!
You do not have to be Scottish to celebrate Burns Night, but you should at least learn how to do their dances, and you can do just this at http://thegaygordons.org/ who hold weekly lessons in London (there are similar groups in Manchester & Edinburgh). Ghillies (special Scottish dance shoes) are not necessary, but the group warns that it is all very energetic and you can lose a lot of fluids, they recommend drinking a lot. Of water that is. Who knows, by the next time Burns Night comes around, you may be as good as the cute (Russian!) dancer below.
