Scottish people and our friends around the globe celebrate Robert Burns’s birthday on 25 January. The traditional Burns Night involves the theatre of a supper of haggis, neeps and tatties (mashed turnip and potato), washed down with malt whisky to the accompaniment of a bagpiper, poetry readings and toasts. In more recent times, Burns Night has evolved into a broader cultural programme of Scots language poetry, storytelling and traditional music.
This dedicated page is designed to help and inspire organisers of Burns Supper events with guides to programming events, ideas for poetry readings and further research into the cultural impact of Burns during his lifetime and today.
The first Burns Supper was organised by Robert Burns’s friends at his birthplace cottage in Alloway, Ayrshire in July 1801 – only five years after his death at the tender age of 37.
Here is a link to a downloadable PDF of Address to a Haggis
