Haggis flown in for Burns night at Da Riccardo
Fully booked this evening the Burns Supper organised at Da Riccardo on the Fosso. To add to occasion the guest of honour - the haggis, was flown in specially this morning on the Glasgow - Pisa flight. Burns Suppers have been part of Scottish culture for about 200 years as a means of commemorating their best loved bard. And when Burns immortalised haggis in verse he created a central link that is maintained to this day. The ritual was started by close friends of Burns a few years after his death in 1796 as a tribute to his memory. The basic format for the evening has remained unchanged since that time and begins when the chairman invites the company to receive the haggis.
THE FORMAT FOR A BURNS SUPPER
Chairperson's opening address A few welcoming words start the evening and the meal commences with the Selkirk Grace The company are asked to stand to receive the haggis. A piper then leads the chef, carrying the haggis to the top table, while the guests accompany them with a slow handclap. The chairman or invited guest then recites Burns' famous poem To A Haggis, with great enthusiasm. When he reaches the line 'an cut you up wi' ready slight', he cuts open the haggis with a sharp knife. It's customary for the company to applaud the speaker then stand and toast the haggis with a glass of whisky. The company will then dine.
A typical Bill o' Fare would be: Cock-a-leekie soup Haggis warm reeking, rich wi' Champit Tatties, Bashed Neeps Tyspy Laird (sherry trifle) A Tassie o' Coffee
The Immortal Memory One of the central features of the evening. An invited guest is asked to give a short speech on Burns. There are many different types of Immortal Memory speeches, from light-hearted to literary, but the aim is the same - to outline the greatness and relevance of the poet today.
Toast To The Lasses The main speech is followed by a more light-hearted address to the women in the audience. Originally this was a thank you to the ladies for preparing the food and a time to toast the 'lasses' in Burns' life. The tone should be witty, but never offensive, and should always end on a concilliatory note.
Response The turn of the lasses to detail men's foibles. Again, should be humorous but not insulting.
Poem and Songs Once the speeches are complete the evening continues with songs and poems. These should be a good variety to fully show the different moods of Burns muse. Favourites for recitations are Tam O' Shanter, Address to the Unco Guid, To A Mouse and Holy Willie's Prayer.
The evening will culminate with the company standing, linking hands and singing Auld Lang Syne to conclude the programm source
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Fair fa' your honest, sonsie face, |
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The groaning trencher there ye fill, |
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His knife see rustic Labour dicht, |
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Then, horn for horn, they stretch an' strive: |
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Is there that o're his French ragout |
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Poor devil! see him ower his trash, |
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But mark the Rustic, haggis fed, |
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Ye Pow'rs wha mak mankind your care, |
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- everyone : you will be sorely missed.
- W. Shakespeare : Lear? Not at all! Those words are lifted from Macbeth's soliloquy:"....L ife's but a walking shadow, a poor player That struts and frets his hour upon the stage And then is heard no more: it is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing."
- Quentin Compson : Yes, Ma'am. It would be King Lear I believe, an allusion to the fool (and to Lear himself). But there is a more recent connection between Yokapatawpha and the Coldfields with a Biblical reference -- Absalom -- rather than the Shakespearean one to which you allude.
- poetry : Miss Coldfield, considered poetess laureate of Yoknapatawpha County, may simply be quoting Shakespeare, I do believe.
- Quentin Compson : Rosa: Stay in your own novel, please. You have no business in The Sound and the Fury, although I appear in both.
- Quentin Compson : Doggy, May I refer you to three sources on the Action-Theory dialectic? Albert Camus: "To do is to be." Jean-Paul Sartre: "To be is to do." Francis Albert Sinatra; "Do be do be doo." That should answer your question.
- Rosa Coldfield : ... it is a tale Told by and idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing.
- doggybag : Quentin - your constant focus on ideas over deeds makes you a highly unreliable commentator- quite often it is difficult to tell which of the actions you are suggesting are mere figments of your imagination and which you really do think should be acted upon.
- Quentin Compson : Hey, you two ought to get together sometime.
- Rosa Coldfield : Why of course : )
- Thomas Sutpen : Miss Rosa knows very well who will merely endure, and who will ultimately prevail
- Rosa Coldfield : It is not entirely clear, however, who has been sorest lately or with whom ; )
- Lord Beaconsfield : Welcom back, Barganews, you were sorely missed
- doggybag : fingers and legs crossed
- Santi : Thank you for answering my question.
- Cartier-Bresson : What a wonderful image of the equally wonderful Maestra Paola -- that could be no one else's elegantly gloved hand...
- Guest_4784 : the girl behind the bar is in the ALTANA rest. just inside the old city
- message for Santi : Altana
- Santi : O.K. Which bar is it?
- doggybag : Hello Santi - no - not the Alpino
- Santi : Is the daily image of the girl behind the bar is of Alpino?
- Casey Jones : Summer bus schedule to real station: see Forum Aug 5.
- aquilotta : Hi Doggybag! sorry haven't been in touch for so long. Love your daily images as always.
- Guest_3522 : And here I thought there were roadents eating my main board.
- doggybag : you are welcome Guest_689 ... now if I could just fix the sound streaming system with is doing a serious chipmonk impression on some computers
- Guest_689 : Dear Mr Braganews Thank you for fixing the webcam
- Guest_3522 : Scottish emigration to Malaysia ? - see «link»
- Guest_878 : the most scottish town with the most scottish idiots
- Guest_3522 : Re: Daily Images 26 July: Let us fervently hope that being "Italy's most Scottish town" doesn't bring more of this UK-style tagging and yobbish hooliganism to Barga. The vandals in question were two young men from Scotland. «link»
- doggybag : sorry Guest_4772 - the hordes of barganews technicians are working on it day and night -- expect some results shortly
- Guest_4772 : Please can the web cam with view of sommocolonia be fixed as it makes my day
- Guest_878 : è più bella alla volta dei Menchi, c'è un barista molto attraente.
I wrote this in 1996 (200th aniversary of the bard’s death) for the Ellon Burns society in Aberdeenshire. Perhaps when the drouthy neibors meet tonight at Da Riccardo they may want to see what Burns might have written had he lived today.
Hello to all in Barga from Carlo and Izzy Zambonini
Address to a haggis.
(Suitable for Vegetarians)
Once mighty stuff fit for Ayre men,
Now feeds the glaikit vegetatian.
Full-bodied, a feast of blood and guts,
Taen ower waesucks! By health-food nuts.
Great Chieftain’s now a whingin slave,
O the common microwave.
A shadow o his former sell,
Six minutes birling rings a bell.
Dizzy fizzing drummock bing,
You wouldna recognise the thing.
Nae fair and honest sonsie face,
Jist meat free sconner in his place.
Trenching your gushing entrails bright,
Leaves only lentils for ma kyte.
Nae rustic knife for you ma loun,
Sic a dinner carves well wae a spoon.
Warm-reeking rich, are Robin’s wurdies,
Pulses don’t stick tae yer hurdies.
So celebrating Bardic birth,
Wi swats an whisky makin mirth,
False puddin reekin on yir table,
Mind the ruminator’s fable.
Heed well his herbivorial rants,
Chief lentil sticks well tae yer pants.
Carlo Umberto Burns.
Carlo, you’re in the wrong line of work. Oil will run out eventually, but poetry is forever — and you hae the gift.