St. Andrew's Day

St. Andrew is the patron saint of Scotland and his feast is considered Scotland’s National Day. Tradition has it that the bones of St. Andrew were carried to Scotland by a monk and enshrined in a town which later took the saint’s name. For many years, St. Andrews was considered the religious capital of Scotland and an important place of pilgrimage. The actual feast of St. Andrew is November 30^th, but celebrations usually last for several days, with special events across the country.

As I mentioned in the previous post, we celebrated St. Andrew’s Day with a ceilidh (kay-lee: party with music and dancing) in St. Mary’s parish hall. The evening began with a traditional Scottish meal of stovies, a type of potato & meat mash. After dinner some locals performed highland dances for us and led us in traditional Scottish ceilidh dancing. Most of the dances required that we gather in groups of four couples. The first dance was quite simple, but they got progressively more complicated. Most of us did well with the first one but had considerable difficulty with the second (i.e. it was a train wreck: people colliding everywhere, arms and legs flailing… good fun but not exactly Scottish dancing!!!). Towards the end of the evening it began to snow – the first snow of the season (and we later learned, the earliest snowfall in Scotland in 17 years!). The highlight of the whole event for Brendan came when Catriona’s minibus got stuck in the snow and she came in asking for help to get it out. Brendan immediately stood up and loudly appealed to every able-bodied man to go join him in rescuing Catriona. The men all rose to the occasion and successfully pushed the minibus out of the snow. They returned with red faces and glowing eyes, all awash in their glorious manhood! Brendan didn’t stop talking about it for the rest of the night – I guess it was a real male-bonding experience!!!

Brendan with Pascal, a Swiss guy in a kilt

Brendan with Matt McAllister, a genuine Scotsman, and Hans, a fellow New Brunswicker
(yes, that is Scotch they're drinking)


Incidentally, it being “Movember”, Brendan came home from the barber on Friday looking like this (much to my horror and dismay!):

For those of you who haven’t heard, November has been designated as prostate cancer awareness month. Men grow mustaches (hence Mo-vember) to raise awareness and collect pledges for prostate cancer research. Brendan didn’t raise any money this year, but says he will next year. What he did raise was lots of laughter – you really can’t help but smile when you see such an awful mustache!!!

In celebration of St. Andrew’s Day, many Scottish historic sites were open free of charge for the weekend. We decided to take advantage of the freebee to visit the Wallace Monument, which is only about a 5 minute cab ride from our apartment. We went on Saturday with German, Paola, Christy and Brigid. It was a lovely winter day – cold but clear. The monument is at the top of a hill, so we had a good trek up and were able to enjoy a fantastic view of Stirling. We also climbed all 250 (or so) steps up to the top of the monument, to get an even better view. It was freezing at the top so we didn’t stay long, but it was worth the climb to see the city from such a height. It was also nice to learn a bit more about the story of William Wallace. 

When we first arrived an actor in costume (complete with an impressive array of weapons!) was describing the exploits of his brave compatriot - most notably, how Wallace defeated the English at Stirling Bridge. Inside the Monument there were several rooms which creatively exhibited the story of Wallace’s life and also paid tribute to other national heroes. Fr. Kenneth had told us on the way to Skye that after the release of Braveheart, tourism to Stirling soared. Having only ever heard the movie’s version of the Wallace story, it was interesting for us to see a more historically accurate representation of events.

At the top of the monument

On our way home from the monument, B, Christy, Brigid and I stopped to load up on treats and pick up the first 3 Harry Potter movies. We spent the rest of the evening watching movies and eating treats. It was great fun! 

Stirling Castle and Royal Gardens in the snow

Liam at 12 weeks