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Ode to the haggis
Celtic Society celebrates life, work of Robert Burns
Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2010
 Click here to enlarge this photo Staff photo by JEFF NEWMAN
Ben Williams of Silver Spring prepares to skewer the ceremonial haggis with a dirk at the 14th Annual Robert Burns Night.
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More than 100 laddies and wee bonny lasses, many decked in kilts, stockings and sporrans, gathered last Saturday to toast the Bard of Ayrshire over some Celtic tunes, a feast of haggis and flowing Scotch.
Both music and food ran aplenty at the Hilton Garden Inn Solomons hotel for the Celtic Society of Southern Maryland's 14th Annual Robert Burns Night. Similar celebrations are held around the world each year to commemorate the life and achievements of Scotland's most beloved poet.
Born in 1759, Burns often wrote poems and lyrics dealing with the disadvantaged and impoverished. His influence extends beyond Europe to nations like Russia, where he is known as the "people's poet," to the United States — Bob Dylan recently cited Burns's song "A Red, Red Rose" as his greatest inspiration.
"He means everything ... He brought pride and popularity to all things Scottish," former Celtic Society President Ben Williams of Silver Spring said. "He was a great humanitarian. He looked out for the underdog. He was concerned about the everyday life of everyday people. He was concerned about justice and democracy."
Williams, a history, anthropology and archaeology teacher at Calvert High School, delivered the traditional address to the haggis before carving the main course with a dirk. Rutabaga and potatoes, or "neeps and tatties," were served alongside the Scottish dish, which actually tastes much better than its components — a sheep's heart, liver and lungs boiled inside its stomach — might suggest.
"We have a secret. We boil it longer," supper chair Roseanna Vogt said. "I've never tasted any haggis that's better than ours."
Lamb and salmon entrees were also provided.
Prior to the dinner, emcee Greg Davis of Tracys Landing gave a welcoming address and C. David Dent read the Immortal Memory, another tradition meant to honor Burns's memory and global influence. Towards the end, Dent recited Burns's "Auld Lang Syne" to the tune of "America the Beautiful" and also shared an anecdote from a Mark Twain travelogue detailing how Burns's name saved the former from a potential scrap with disagreeable Scotsmen.
The traditional Selkirk Grace was given by Williams before cock-a-leekie soup was served and a string of toasts were made to the President of the United States, Queen Elizabeth II, lassies, laddies and military.
"A successful man is one who makes more money than his wife can spend," Kirk MacKinnon said during his Toast to the Lassies. "A successful woman is one who can find such a man."
Dent's father, Chuck, founded the society more than 30 years ago along with Williams to bring together those sharing Celtic ancestry and wishing to educate the public about the seven Celtic nations — Scotland, Ireland, Wales, Cornwall, Brittany, Galicia and the Isle of Man.
"All of our events have some element of education involved, because that is an element of our existence," President Sarah Brenzo of Hollywood, Md., said. "We strive to promote the culture of all those countries."
Brenzo's husband, Terry, played bagpipes during the traditional "pipin' in o' the haggis."
Despite the reverence Burns commands in Scotland — he was recently voted on Scottish television as the greatest Scot of all-time over William Wallace — the annual dinner is one of the society's smaller events, Brenzo said. While the event was overbooked, its 109 guests didn't quite compare to the annual Celtic Festival and Highland Gathering, which can draw up to 30,000 people in any given year, Vogt said.
After dinner, the night wrapped up with more than an hour of "sangs and clatter," including traditional dancing from Kaitlyn Likas of St. Leonard. A senior art history major at Towson University and Patuxent High School graduate, Likas has won several national Irish and Scottish dancing and fiddling competitions.
"This is just an example of the good things this society does," Davis, himself a past society president, said of Likas and other young people involved in the organization. Celtic songs and Scottish line dance, led by Williams, followed before the evening ended with a joint rendition of "Auld Lang Syne," which translated to English reads something like "days of long ago."
A silent auction, open throughout the supper, featured Walkers shortbread gift baskets, free fiddle and bagpipe lessons from Sarah and Terry Brenzo, respectively, tickets to the Celtic Festival and Le Vent du Nord concert at Calvert Marine Museum, a Celtic shield and the dirk used by Williams to skewer the haggis.
