Page 27 - Feb2023

"One thing
frightens me much:
that we are to live
forever, seems too
good news to be The January Club
true--That we are to
enter into a new Dinner
scene of existence,
where exempt from
want and pain we
shall enjoy
ourselves and our
friends without
satiety or
separation--how
much woud I be January 29th
indebted to anyone
who could fully The Celtic Cup
assure me that this
were certain fact!"
Tullahoma, Tennessee
Robert Burns writing
in a letter to
Alexander Cumming
1790

Thirty members of the NBCC turned out for a first
time Club monthly dinner- this to honor Robert
Burns, Scotland's National Poet, who died in 1797
at the age of 37.

This was a first time event for most who
attended, but the Suppers themselves have gone
on since 1801, five years after Burns' death,
organized by nine of his friends in Dumfries,
where Burns had his final residence. Burns Nights
are now held round the world as close to Burns'
actual birthday, January 25th, as they can be
arranged. Formal or informal, they hey follow a
program, with few modifications, as the suppers
have done since that first one.

There is the parading of the haggis, Scotland's
National Dish, the recitation of Burns' poem Ode
to a Haggis, the Selkirk Grace before dinner, a
speech entitled To the Immortal Memory,
readings from Burns' work, and a series of toasts
to the lassies and to Absent Friends , with the
evening concluding with Auld Lang Syne.

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