Caledonian Games and New Year’s Day in New Zealand
The lusty sports of "Caledonia, stern and wild" have been celebrated in prose and verse by the greatest masters of both. They have a peculiar charm of their own. The…
The Scots and St George
Today is St George's Day and many English around the world will come together to celebrate England's saint day. Despite its focus on celebrating English culture and traditions, express Englishness,…
Scottish Parades in New York
Last Saturday saw New York's annual Tartan Day parade make its way along 6th Avenue. The unrivalled culmination of a week of Scottish celebrations in the Big Apple, Tartan Day…
Happy Easter – Scottish Style
At the end of April 1905, self-proclaimed Traveller wrote a letter to the editor of the Manawatu Standard, commenting on the Caledonian Games that had been held in Palmerston North,…
Scottish Connections with Japan
In nineteenth-century Japan Scots were at the vanguard of European arrivals, with Thomas Blake Glover providing the most prominent example of the close ties that subsequently developed between Japan and…
The 148th Turakina Highland Games
It was my great pleasure to visit the Turakina Highland Games last Saturday -- the 148th Games, making them New Zealand's longest-running Highland Games. It was in early January 1864…
Burns Night in New Zealand
When members of the Dunedin Burns Club and its friends gathered in 1906 to celebrate the 147th birthday of Scotland's national bard, they did so 'with mirth and song and…
The Turakina Highland Games
The Turakina Highland Games, New Zealand's longest running Games, will be held for the 148th time in 2012, the events taking place on 28th January 2012 in the Turakina Domain,…