Tartan Day – 10 Unbe-Weave-Able Facts About Tartan

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Look out your kilt or tartan trews – Sunday 6 April is Tartan Day, a chance for Scots both at home and overseas to celebrate their rich cultural heritage. Coinciding with the anniversary of the Declaration of Arbroath, Tartan Day began in Canada in the 1980s and has since seen parades, ceilidhs and celebrations pop up all over North America, including the world-famous Tartan Day Parade in New York.

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Have a look at these fun facts to find out more about Scotland’s favourite fabric:

1. Love Me Tartan: Elvis Presley has no less than three tartans to his name. The singer is said to Image result for presley tartanhave roots in Lonmay, a tiny village in Aberdeenshire, and in 2004 local designer Mike King created an official Presley of Lonmay tartan in his honour followed by a modern version a few years later. The Scottish Tartan Registry also lists the Presley of Memphis tartan by Brian Wilton, which is based on the colours of the US flag with a gold stripe to represent Elvis’ multiple Gold Discs. It even has a thread count of 42 – the age the King was when he died.

2. One giant leap for tartankind: Alan Bean, an American astronaut of Scottish descent, took a Image result for alan beanlittle piece of MacBean tartan up to the moon during his Apollo 12 mission in 1969. Despite some rumours to the contrary, he didn’t leave his clan’s colours to float around in space forever: he took the material back to Earth and donated it to Clan MacBean and to the St Bean Chapel in Fowlis Wester, Perthshire.

Image result for queen victoria tartan3. Tartan trendsetters: Nowadays Queen Victoria may not be known as a fashionista, but she’s partly to thank for tartan’s popularity today. A fan of all things Scottish, she turned up to the Great Exhibition in 1851 with her young sons, Albert and Alfred, decked out in full Highland attire. Sales of plaid went through the roof, and became a particularly popular choice for schools. Since then tartan has been seen on uniforms not only in the UK, but also in countries such as the US, the Philippines and Japan.

4. Big in Japan: Speaking of the Japanese, they’re amongst Scotland’Image result for Jun Takahashi tartans biggest fans when it comes to fashion. The country is the largest international importer of the Outer Hebrides’ famous Harris Tweed, and tartan is a staple of Japanese street and runway fashion – designer Jun Takahashi once had models strut down the runway painted from head to toe in plaid. The country has had several tartans dedicated to it; Hello Kitty even has her very own design!

Image result for tartan sheep5. Unewesual designs: Scotland is home to a rare species of tartan sheep. Well, sort of – the talented owners of the East Links Family Park near Dunbar and the Auchingarrich Wildlife Centre in Perthshire have been known to paint their sheep tartan for Tartan Day and other events. The sheep have become a tourist attraction in their own right – the Auchingarrich flock even featured in an episode of Come Dine With Me!

Image result for culloden6. The original rebelwear: Tartan and kilts were banned under the 1746 Act of Proscription in an attempt to control the Highland clans that had supported the Jacobite Risings. Those suspected of supporting the enemy cause were asked to take an oath stating that they would “never use any tartan, plaid or any part of the Highland garb, and if I do so, may I be cursed in my undertakings, family, and property – may I never see my wife and children, father, mother, and relations – may I be killed in battle as a coward, and lie without Christian burial in a strange land, far from the graves of my forefathers and kindred”.

Image result for scottish police7. Police in plaid: Black and white checks can be seen on police uniforms and vehicles all over the world, but did you know the design is technically a type of tartan? Named ‘Sillitoe Tartan’ after Chief Constable Percy Sillitoe of the City of Glasgow Police, the checks were first used by police in Scotland in 1932. Their use has since spread to police forces in parts of Australia, Spain, the USA, Hong Kong and several other countries.

8. Woven words: Like many English words, we nabbed ‘tartan’ from the French. The name comes from the word tiretaine, stemming from the verb tirer (to pull). The term also has links to the Spanish tiritaña, a type of silk cloth, and the Gaelic breacan, meaning plaid or speckled.

9. Pricey patterns: Peebles knitwear firm Holland & Sherry are proud creators of the world’s most expensive tartan – a luxury blend woven from pure Mongolian cashmere that will set you back £500 a square metre, or £5,000 for the full kilt. Don’t re-mortgage the house just yet, though! Kilts normally cost between £150 and £500, depending on the quality and length of the material, and you can get a lightweight version for a reasonable £50.

Image result for united states tartan10. Not just for Scots! One popular misconception about tartan is that you have to be a card-carrying clansman to wear a family tartan. In fact, tartans didn’t become associated with specific clans until the 19th century; before that people picked their plaids based on colours, just as they do now. If you do want some personal connection to your design, you’ll probably be able to find one regardless of whether or not you have Scottish roots – countries from the Congo to Zimbabwe and beyond have their own national tartans (United States tartan shown), as do each of the US States and Canadian provinces.

Unbe-weave-able! Find out more with our guides to tartan, clans and culture, and make sure you don’t miss out on the Tartan Day Scotland celebrations in Angus and other parts of Scotland.

Source:
https://www.visitscotland.com/blog/culture/tartan-facts/

 

Ten Irish love sayings for St. Valentine’s Day

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Jane Walsh
@IrishCentral

Who has more a way with words than the Irish? From Joyce, to Yeats to Shaw and down through the generations, they have pondered life’s great questions, but also expressed their love beautifully.

Here are some short love lines for St. Valentine’s Day from the heart of the Irish:

1. Pulse of my heart, song of my soul, light of my night

2. May you have warm hands on a cold evening

3.  It is easy to half the potato when there is love

4. Love him when he least deserves it, that’s when he most needs it

5. Love makes time pass, beware time making love pass

6. Always trust, when mistrust comes love goes out

7. I believe there is a sun when it is not shining, I believe there is a God when I cannot see him, I believe there is love when I feel it not

8. Beware an Irishman who loves his wife the most but his mother the longest

9. Trouble in love hates nothing more than a smile

10. Love is like a lifeboat on the stormy sea of life

http://www.irishcentral.com/roots/top-10-irish-love-sayings-for-valentines-day-116149074-237369481

Top ten facts you never knew about St. Patrick’s Day

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Cathy Hayes
@IrishCentral

With St. Patrick’s Day celebrated across the world, did you ever wonder how much you actually know about Ireland’s biggest national holiday?

Here are our ten top facts:

1. St. Patrick was not Irish. He was from Wales.

Getty Images
Getty Images

2. The humble shamrock was originally a teaching tool. St. Patrick is said to have used the three-leaved plant to explain the Holy Trinity (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) to the pagan Irish.

3. The first St. Patrick’s Day parade took place in New York in the 1760s.

Ancient Order of the Hibernians calls out Bed, Bath and Beyond for "denigration of Irish Americans though stereotyping" with anit-Irish merchandise.

4. For many years, blue was the color most often associated with St. Patrick. Green was considered unlucky. St. Patrick’s blue was considered symbolic of Ireland for many centuries and the Irish Presidential Standard is still blue.

Garry Knight/Flickr

Garry Knight/Flickr

5. For many years, Dripsey in County Cork had the world’s shortest parade, just 77 feet, the distance between two pubs – The Weigh Inn and The Lee Valley. Currently, the town of Hot Springs, AR claims to have the shortest parade – a 98 foot route on Bridge Street. Recent participants included the Irish Elvises and the San Diego Chicken.

6. In 2010, the Sydney Opera House went green to mark the 200th anniversary of St. Patrick’s Day there. In Sydney, St Patrick’s Day was first marked in 1810, when Lachlan Macquarie, the Governor of New South Wales, provided entertainment for Irish convict workers.

7. Irish flee the country. In Ireland on March 17 you’ll find many public figures, musicians, and dancers have traveled abroad to work on lucrative gigs elsewhere. Politicians also travel to drum up trade.

8. In Chicago every year, the Plumbers Local 110 union dyes the river “Kelly” green. The dye lasts for about five hours.

Getty Images
Getty Images

9. Traditionally, every year, the Irish leader hands a crystal bowl full of shamrock to the US President. The shamrock, grown in Kerry, is immediately destroyed by the Secret Service after the exchange.

President Obama with Taoiseach Enda Kenny at the White House last year.
President Obama with Taoiseach Enda Kenny at the White House last year.

10. Guinness sales soar on St. Patrick’s Day. Recent figures show that 5.5 million pints of the black stuff are downed around the world every day. On St. Patrick’s Day that figure is doubled.

* Originally published in February 2012.

http://www.irishcentral.com/roots/top-ten-facts-you-never-knew-about-st-patricks-day-140846663-237432581

 

 

Who Was St. Andrew?

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On the 30th of November, Scots around the world celebrate St. Andrew’s Day.  St. Andrew is the patron saint of Scotland and is the inspiratio for the Scottish flag.  Here are ten fascinating facts about Saint Andrew:
  1. Andrew was a Galilean fisherman before he and his brother Simon Peter became disciples of Jesus Christ.
  2. He was crucified by the Romans on an X-shaped cross at Patras in Greece and, hundreds of years later, his remains were moved to Constantinople and then, in the 13th century, to Amalfi in southern Italy where they are kept to this day.
  3. Legend has it that a Greek monk known as St Rule or St Regulus was ordered in a vision to take a few relics of Andrew to the ‘ends of the earth’ for safe keeping. He set off on a sea journey to eventually come ashore on the coast of Fife at a settlement which is now the modern town of St Andrews.
  4. In 832 AD Andrew is said to have appeared in a vision to a Pictish king the night before a battle against the Northumbrians in what is now the village of Athelstaneford in East Lothian. On the day of the battle a Saltire, an X-shaped cross, appeared in the sky above the battlefield and the Picts were victorious.
  5. The Saltire, or Saint Andrew’s Cross, was subsequently adopted as the national emblem and flag of the Scots.
  6. Andrew was first recognised as an official patron saint of Scotland in 1320 at the signing of the Declaration of Arbroath an appeal to the Pope by Scottish noblemen asserting Scotland’s independence from England.
  7. The presence of Andrew’s relics in Scotland – a tooth, a kneecap, arm and finger bones – meant that St Andrews became a popular medieval pilgrimage site although they were destroyed in the 16th century during the Scottish Reformation.
  8. In 1879 the Archbishop of Amalfi gifted Andrew’s shoulder blade to St Mary’s Cathedral in Edinburgh. Pope Paul VI donated further relics in 1969.
  9. Andrew is also the patron saint of Greece, Russia, Romania, and Barbados.  Remnants of the cross he was crucified on remain in the St Andrew’s Cathedral Patras in Greece.  Saint Andrew was the first bishop there and then crucified by the Romans.
  10. His patronage extends to fishmongers, gout, singers, sore throats, spinsters, maidens, old maids and women wishing to become mothers.