Hello!
How are you guys doing?
Yesterday
was St. Andrew’s Day.
St.
Andrew’s day is Scotland’s national day and because of that, we learned a lot about
the Scottish traditions and culture. Despite dating back for almost a
thousand years, Scottish traditions are just as alive today as they were in the
12th century. Changing with every generation, Scottish culture is living,
breathing, and constantly evolving.St Andrew's Day is celebrated on the 30th of November and is marked with a celebration of Scottish culture with traditional Scottish food, music and dance.
In school we learned that they celebrate St Andrew’s Day to celebrate the life of St. Andrew, who is the patron saint of Scotland, Greece and Russia. St. Andrew was a fisherman and brother of the disciple Simon Peter, also called St. Peter. He was also the first disciple of Jesus Christ.
Our school held a special St Andrew's Day events so i am going to tell you all about it!
St Andrew's Day is an official flag day in Scotland, so we started the day in the schoolyard raising the flag and singing "Flower of Scotland". Scotland doesn’t have a official national, however, a number of songs are used as unofficial Scottish national anthems.
Scottish music is a significant aspect of the nation's culture, with both traditional and modern influences, so after we were in the schoolyard we went inside where we learned to dance Scottish country dancing, and it was so fun! But it was really hard to learn because the dance instructor was speaking Scottish Gaelic, and i couldn’t understand a word he said! In Scotland the most normal language is Scottish English, but its also quite normal to speak Scots and Scottish Gaelic too. The dialect of English spoken in Scotland is referred to as Scottish English.
We also learned how to play bagpipe. The bagpipe
is the national instrument of Scotland. Today the bagpipes are used in
military pipe bands, in folk bands and solo performances. Bagpipe music has
roots in Scottish culture and there are roughly two main styles of music played
on the bagpipes, Ceòl Mór and Ceòl Beag, which means ‘big music’ and ‘little
music’.
During lunchtime we had to eat traditional
Scottish food, and we all know the stereotypical notions of traditional
Scottish food – haggis and whisky. Scotch whisky, which is famous across the
globe and as popular in Scotland as it has ever been, is possibly one of
Scotland’s most well-known inventions. (unfortunately for me) We’re so young
that they didn’t serve whisky at school, but they did serve haggis, and let me
tell you- it tasted terrible. Haggis is a savoury pudding containing sheep's
pluck minced with onion, oatmeal, suet, spices, and salt, mixed with stock, and
traditionally encased in the animal's stomach and simmered for approximately
three hours. Would you eat that? I don’t
think so!
After this
exiting day at school some friends and I went shopping. We walked pass a Subway and at first i didn’t
noticed anything but then i walked by again and i saw that the Subway logo was
black instead of green! I asked my friend why it was black instead of green,
and they told me that in Larkhall they associate green with Catholicism,
Irish republicanism and the football team Glasgow Celtic. And in Larkhall, the
majority of people are Protestant, unionist, and supporters of another Glasgow
football team, Rangers. I thing it’s a stupid reason to change the color on a
sign, but it also show their pride of their culture and traditions!
Now I’m
going to go to bed, i have a big English test tomorrow! Wish me luck!
-Rachel
Alexandra
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