Burns Night in Hastings

With Burns Night approaching on 25 January, Jude Montague thinks about this occasion on which she and many others ponder their Scottish heritage.

Burns night has been celebrated since 1801. The poet Robert Burns was born on 25 January 1759 and the traditional supper celebrates his life and work in food and poetry.

A formal dining programme has developed. A piper welcomes the guests at the door. The haggis is the central dish and Burns’s poem Address to a Haggis is considered the important poem here, read as the dish is served. A wee deoch an dorus (drink at the door) finishes the evening, sending the guests out into the evening. Although the night focuses on a single poem it can be an opportunity for wider celebrations of Scotland. And with the success of the television series Outlander it’s sure that ideas of Scottishness, at least in fiction, are very much alive.

The centenary of Burns’ birth in 1859 marked a climax for appreciation of his work and of his figure and there were more than 1,200 Burns’ Suppers held across the British Empire and in the United States. Unsurprisingly these took many different forms of banquets in different locations. Some organisations used Burns as a symbol of rebellion and socialist assertion, others used the opportunity to decorate civic pride and add glamour to the status quo.

Burns’s work generally has survived well as writers go in and out of fashion, even when looking back at Scottish history through a Romantic lens. Walter Scott was once the flavour of the month but is so no more as even his most famous novel Ivanhoe is no longer popular.

In contrast the legacy of Robert Burns has grown stronger, particularly internationally, with folk revivalists around the world enjoying his work. The reception of Burns is heightened and influenced by the impact of Brexit and the question of Scottish independence. Yet not all his work is considered acceptable nowadays and most find it necessary to pick and choose from his canon as his many works do not all sit easily with modern ideas.

Hastings feels an appropriate enough place to celebrate Robert Burns and a connection with Scotland. The town has one famous Scottish connection, having become the temporary home of Scottish inventor John Logie Baird, who invented television here 100 years ago, although his mechanical system was not so practical as the electronic system later chosen by the British Broadcasting Company. And the much-loved music hall singer Harry Lauder visited many times, performing at the White Rock Pavilion and on the Pier.

The Albion pub has taken on the Burns night tradition although so far this year I believe they have not been able to secure a piper. However there are other Burns night poetry readings and Scottish festivities around town, including one that I’m taking part in at the Prince Albert on Thursday 25 January.

I wish you a happy Burns night wherever you are, with these two stanzas from a Scots-language work written in 1785. His brother Gilbert claimed the poet composed the verse while still holding his plough.

To a Mouse, on Turning Her Up in Her Nest With the Plough, November 1785

Wee, sleekit, cowrin, tim’rous beastie,
O, what a pannic’s in thy breastie!
Thou need na start awa sae hasty,
Wi’ bickering brattle!
I wad be laith to rin an’ chase thee,
Wi’ murd’ring pattle!

I’m truly sorry man’s dominion,
Has broken nature’s social union,
An’ justifies that ill opinion,
Which makes thee startle
At me, thy poor, earth-born companion,
An’ fellow-mortal!

If you are organising a Burns night celebration open to the public in Hastings, please send a listing in to Hastings Online Times.

Also in: Poetry