The spirit and memory of Robert Burns are alive and well at Bowden Grandview School.
On Jan. 17, Bowden Grandview School library was transformed into a performance theatre to help Grade 4 students and their families celebrate Robbie Burns Day. More than 60 parents and teachers watched as MC Bill Whitehead, bagpiper Michael McLetchie and his musician wife Marion performed and delivered up a meal of haggis.
ìRobert Burns was born on Jan. 25, 255 years ago,î said Whitehead with tears in his eyes. ìAnd today we still celebrate his poetry and the Scottish heritage that has helped make Canada into the best country in the world.î
Students and teachers helped decorate the room with tartans proclaiming Scottish pride, haggis, Nessie, and literature. The tartan clad Grade 4 class was front and centre for an education in Robert Burns and more.
The Grade 4 class, under Whitehead's tutelage, recited two Burns poems: A Red, Red Rose and Scotts Wha Hae.
Spruce View Grade 4 student Abby Huising performed two Highland dances for the audience: the Scottish sword dance, and the Seann Triubhas, pronounced ìShawn truce.î Whitehead explained that the Seann Tiubhas (old trousers) was danced after the repeal of the ban on kilts, tartans, and bagpipes in 1785 after the Jacobite uprising 40 years earlier.
Marion demonstrated the bodhran, a skin drum played by beating the surface with a cipin.
ìThe bodhran is a more modern instrument,î said Marion. ìIt can be used to keep a beat in Highland music. Drums have been used by Scots for centuries.î
Two students successfully tried their hand at playing the instrument.
Whitehead spoke to the lads with a stirring recitation of John Anderson, My Jo, a poem celebrating lifelong love and courtship.
The lads and lasses responded and tipped a glass to each other in toast.
Bagpipes moved the audience to the presentation of the haggis and Burns' poem, Address to the Haggis with dramatic flair by Michael.
Gesticulating passionately as he cut into the haggis, he spoke to the haggis and members of the audience as if they were merely intruders into the moment.
Haggis was served to all the students and parents who wished to try the legendary dish; some even went back for seconds.
ìI think that it is very important to teach Robert Burns to the children,î said Michael. ìHe is Scotland's greatest poet, and the themes he wrote about, love, life, passion and manhood are universal. I have been doing this 17 years now, and will keep on celebrating Burns as long as I can.î
