What you need for a Burns supper: your complete guide

By The Newsroom
Published 21st Jan 2016, 12:22 BST
Updated 21st Jan 2016, 12:26 BST
The Scottish Patriots Burns Supper held at the Playhouse restaurant in Edinburgh 1966.The Scottish Patriots Burns Supper held at the Playhouse restaurant in Edinburgh 1966.
The Scottish Patriots Burns Supper held at the Playhouse restaurant in Edinburgh 1966.
THE tradition of the Burns Supper began as a group of Robert Burns' friends meeting to commemorate his life and work every year on 21 July, the date of the poet's death.

The first Burns club, founded by Ayrshire merchants, held a supper in 1802, on what they thought was Burns’ birthday – 29 January.

By the following year they had established the actual date of his birth from parish records, and Burns suppers have been held on 25 January ever since.

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If you want to hold your own, we’ve put together a step-by-step guide.

Piping In the Haggis at a Burns Supper in the Kintore Rooms, Queen Street, Edinburgh in January 1974.Piping In the Haggis at a Burns Supper in the Kintore Rooms, Queen Street, Edinburgh in January 1974.
Piping In the Haggis at a Burns Supper in the Kintore Rooms, Queen Street, Edinburgh in January 1974.

Strictly speaking, kilts are not de rigueur at a Burns Supper, as the bard himself, as a Lowlander, would not have worn one.

Furthermore, it would have been illegal for him to do so for much of his life even if he had wanted to – kilts were outlawed in the Dress Act of 1746 after the Jacobite rebellion, which was not repealed until 1782. Moreover, kilts were not thought of as common Scottish dress until the 19th century.

But Burns was vocal in his support of the rights of Highlanders to don their traditional dress and would no doubt have supported your right to get in the mood by doing so too.

Supplies

School children holding up the haggis for the Burns Supper in South Morningside School, EdinburghSchool children holding up the haggis for the Burns Supper in South Morningside School, Edinburgh
School children holding up the haggis for the Burns Supper in South Morningside School, Edinburgh

Haggis, whisky and poetry are the essentials, but for the full Burns Supper experience there are plenty of rituals to be observed. The evening begins with the guests being piped in (although a CD will suffice for those without a piper among their acquaintance) and the supper itself kicks off with The Selkirk Grace – the prayer of thanks attributed to Burns, although it was well known before he recited it at a dinner given by the Earl of Selkirk in 1794:

Some hae meat and canna eat,

And some wad eat that want it;

But we hae meat, and we can eat

Addressing the Haggis at a Burns Supper in the Kintore Rooms, Queen Street, Edinburgh in January 1974.Addressing the Haggis at a Burns Supper in the Kintore Rooms, Queen Street, Edinburgh in January 1974.
Addressing the Haggis at a Burns Supper in the Kintore Rooms, Queen Street, Edinburgh in January 1974.

Sae let the Lord be thankit.

Read More
Robert Burns: Inspirational quotes and their meaning

Supper

The supper starts with soup – usually Scotch Broth or Cock-a-Leekie – and then it’s time for the main event: the haggis. Presented with no shortage of ceremony, the haggis is traditionally piped in, on a silver salver carried by the cook, to a standing slow clap.

St Cuthbert's Women's Guild - Stenhouse branch.St Cuthbert's Women's Guild - Stenhouse branch.
St Cuthbert's Women's Guild - Stenhouse branch.

As it’s laid down, the host recites the Address to a haggis:

Fair fa’ your honest, sonsie face,

Great chieftain o the puddin’-race!

Aboon them a’ ye tak your place,

Painch, tripe, or thairm:

Weel are ye worthy o’ a grace

A haggis is piped aboard a BUA aircraft to London at Turnhouse Airport, Edinburgh for a flying Burns Supper.A haggis is piped aboard a BUA aircraft to London at Turnhouse Airport, Edinburgh for a flying Burns Supper.
A haggis is piped aboard a BUA aircraft to London at Turnhouse Airport, Edinburgh for a flying Burns Supper.

As lang’s my arm.

The groaning trencher there ye fill,

Your hurdies like a distant hill,

Your pin wad help to mend a mill

In time o need,

While thro your pores the dews distil

Like amber bead.

His knife see rustic Labour dight,

An cut you up wi ready slight,

Trenching your gushing entrails bright,

Like onie ditch;

And then, O what a glorious sight,

Warm-reekin, rich!

Then, horn for horn, they stretch an strive:

Deil tak the hindmost, on they drive,

Till a’ their weel-swall’d kytes belyve

Are bent like drums;

The auld Guidman, maist like to rive,

‘Bethankit’ hums.

Is there that owre his French ragout,

Or olio that wad staw a sow,

Or fricassee wad mak her spew

Wi perfect scunner,

Looks down wi sneering, scornfu view

On sic a dinner?

Poor devil! see him owre his trash,

As feckless as a wither’d rash,

His spindle shank a guid whip-lash,

His nieve a nit;

Thro bloody flood or field to dash,

O how unfit!

But mark the Rustic, haggis-fed,

The trembling earth resounds his tread,

Clap in his walie nieve a blade,

He’ll make it whissle;

An legs an arms, an heads will sned,

Like taps o thrissle.

Ye Pow’rs, wha mak mankind your care,

And dish them out their bill o fare,

Auld Scotland wants nae skinking ware

That jaups in luggies:

But, if ye wish her gratefu prayer,

Gie her a Haggis

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