{"id":108,"date":"2004-02-03T00:40:00","date_gmt":"2004-02-03T00:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=108"},"modified":"2004-02-03T00:40:00","modified_gmt":"2004-02-03T00:40:00","slug":"some-hae-meat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=108","title":{"rendered":"Some Hae Meat"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/strong>On Saturday the 24th of January, a colleague invited me and the notorious M.C. to the “Burns Nicht Supper,” an annual event in many locations around the world, celebrating the birthday of the Scottish poet Robert Burns. Go here<\/a> for a typical evening’s program, Alberta version.<\/p>\n

“You’ll see,” she said. “The Presbyterians provide the organization, and the Pagans provide the music and energy” . . . or words to that effect.<\/p>\n

I tied on my dress Gordon necktie (Victorian invention, all that specific clan tartan stuff); the notorious M.C. combed her red hair and dressed in black, and off we went, to the dining hall of The Retired Enlisted Association<\/a> in Colorado Springs, a suitably banner-hung and martial venue. Aside from one singer\/guitarist and his companion, who set off my . . . what’s the Pagan equivalent of “gaydar”? . . . I would say that the Presbyterian influence dominated the evening. <\/p>\n

All the elements were there: the haggis was piped, the toasts were drunk, and the wee laddies and lassies danced around basket-hilted broadswords as large as they were. I give the Scottish Society of the Pike’s Peak Region<\/a> credit for this: they are not afraid to let children handle large edged weapons. Imagine such a thing in a public school in this safety-crazed age.<\/p>\n

But eventually it all wore on us, and we slipped away before “Auld Lang Syne” was sung, pleading the long drive home.<\/p>\n

The same Scottish Society of the Pike’s Peak Region will be “kirkin’ the tartan” in our former home of Manitou Springs come April 3. A little research reveals that this seemingly ancient “tradition” was invented<\/a> early on in World War II to build American support for the British cause, in the months before the Pearl Harbor attack brought us into the war. Now it has become a major American and Canadian tourist event: here<\/a> is one example from Nova Scotia.<\/p>\n

As for the Pagans, I think that they are at the Highland Games that are spreading everywhere.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Saturday the 24th of January, a colleague invited me and the notorious M.C. to the “Burns Nicht Supper,” an annual event in many locations around the world, celebrating the birthday of the Scottish poet Robert Burns. Go here for a typical evening’s program, Alberta version. “You’ll see,” she said. “The Presbyterians provide the organization, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[23,17],"class_list":["post-108","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-colorado","tag-scotland"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-1K","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":182,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=182","url_meta":{"origin":108,"position":0},"title":"Trojans, anyone? 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It was published in Axis Mundi: A Student Journal for the Academic Study of Religion, whose article index is here. The paper is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"American religion\"","block_context":{"text":"American religion","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=american-religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":188,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=188","url_meta":{"origin":108,"position":2},"title":"Blogging--and gardening--resume Back from visiting\u2026","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"May 19, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Blogging--and gardening--resume Back from visiting a key North American cell of the International Tazi Conspiracy, M.C. and I are deeply involved (sore backs, dirty fingernails) in the frantic May gardening spurt imposed by Colorado weather, which goes from blizzard to summer in the blink of an eye. One of this\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":164,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=164","url_meta":{"origin":108,"position":3},"title":"Dealing with evangelicals About ten\u2026","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"April 18, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Dealing with evangelicals About ten days ago, while I was working at home (revising the book), the notorious M.C. took the dogs for a walk in the woods, leaving me without my first line of defense. As I was pouring a cup of tea in the kitchen, someone knocked at\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":194,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=194","url_meta":{"origin":108,"position":4},"title":"A delayed reaction to Barbara Bradley Hagerty’s NPR pieces","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"May 31, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Two weeks after blogging about it, I finally listened to National Public Radio reporter Barbara Badley Hagerty's interview with the (mostly) teenaged Wiccans.A thought struck me: Is Wicca still the only religion that requires a rebuttal? In this base, Bradley Hagerty goes to some teens at some big evangelical church\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"American religion\"","block_context":{"text":"American religion","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=american-religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":147,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=147","url_meta":{"origin":108,"position":5},"title":"‘Red Flag Warning’","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"March 20, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"For the last month, Forest Service crews have been cutting fire line and otherwise preparing to set a prescribed burn quite near my home. The first burn in what was supposed to be a series of them to reduce the wildfire risk and improve elk winter habitat was set four\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Colorado\"","block_context":{"text":"Colorado","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=colorado"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=108"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}