Celebrate Burns Night

Celebrate the life and work of poet Robert Burns on 25 January.

Burns night takes place on the 25 January every year because that’s the date Robbie Burns was born on in 1759. It’s a great opportunity to have a feast, learn about his work and shout about his contribution to the world through music and dance.

To help girls learn more about this day and why it’s important, we’ve previously held our own Burns supper feast. We read poetry together, we sang, we danced and we ate! You’ll need some Burns poems at hand, which you can find easily through a quick web search or in a book from your local library. They’re written in 18^th century Scots and even Scottish people can struggle to read it, let alone recite it out loud but don’t worry, just go for it! There’s help with pronunciation and translation online.

We also encouraged girls to make up some poetry of their own in the style of Burns which was a lot of fun. They all really enjoyed getting creative together.

It’s really easy to coordinate all these activities online too. For example, last year we had one of our girls do some Highland dancing on Zoom – she happily taught the other girls some skilled moves. Speaking of dance – have you ever tried your hand at Scottish country dancing? Well now’s your chance. There are some great video tutorials available online, or if you’re in Scotland you might already have a young person in your unit who can teach everyone else a few steps like we did. You could even create a Scottish country music playlist for your meeting, including some Burns songs like Auld Lange Syne.

When it comes to food you can’t go wrong with a traditional meal of haggis, ‘neeps’ (mashed turnips) and ‘tatties’ (mashed potatoes) on Burns Night. There’s vegetarian haggis available too, but you’ll probably find that not all girls will want to try either option. We actually had haggis flavoured crisps one year so there’s sometimes easy and super-tasty alternatives available. Then you can wash it all down with some Irn Bru, a very popular Scottish soft drink.

Burns Night is also a great excuse to do some other Scotland-related activities with your unit, like getting girls to design their own tartan or they could make their own Scotland-themed badges. By the end of the night your girls will not have only learned more about Scotland, Robbie Burns and his legacy, they’ll have had a real blast too.

More activity ideas for Burns Night

Make a Scottish flag badge 

Per badge, you'll need eight safety pins (seven safety pins will be threaded onto one main pin), 36 blue and 12 white seed beads. Thread seven of the beads onto each of the pins so it looks like the diagram. Learn more about the story of the Scottish flag.

Make your own tartan

Each member will need coloured A4 paper, scissors, coloured strips of paper that are the width of a piece of A4 and are between 5mm and 2cm thick and glue.

1. Fold the A4 piece of paper in half along the long side.
2. From the fold, starting on the left side and around 3cm into the paper, cut a slit up the paper. Leave 2cm at the top.
3. Leave a gap of 1cm and make a similar cut. Continue making slits along the paper, leaving 3cm border on the right.
4. Open out the paper. Take on coloured strip and weave it over and under the slits. Push it to the top of the slits and glue each end down.
5. Take another strip of paper and repeat this time under then over. Continue weaving until the slits are full. Try out different numbers of slits to weave under and over.

Learn more about tartan and kilts.

Sing Auld Lang Syne

Auld Lang Syne literally mean ‘old long since’ in English and is about remembering the good old days. It's often sung on New Year's Eve, often called Hogmanay in Scotland, and on Burns Night. Learn more about the song.

Should auld acquaintance be forgot
And never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot
And days of auld lang syne?

For auld lang syne, my dear
For auld lang syne
We'll tak a cup o' kindness yet
For days of auld lang syne

And there's a hand, my trusty fiere
And gie's a hand o' thine
And we'll tak a right gude-willy waught
For auld lang syne

For auld lang syne, my dear
For auld lang syne
We'll tak a cup o' kindness yet
For auld lang syne

For auld lang syne, my dear
For auld lang syne
We'll tak a cup o' kindness yet
For auld lang syne

How is your unit celebrating Burns Night? Tag us on social media or email [email protected]