Robert Burns Night

Every 25th of January, Scots at home and around the world mark the birthday of national poet Robert Burns with a Burns Supper — a genuinely formal, ritualised meal that's been observed in something close to its current form since shortly after the poet's death in 1796.

The evening follows a set structure: haggis is piped into the room and addressed with Burns' own poem "Address to a Haggis", before being ceremonially cut open with a knife. The meal typically continues with neeps and tatties (mashed swede and potato), whisky toasts, and recitations of Burns' poetry throughout the evening.

What began as private gatherings among Burns' friends and admirers has become a genuinely global tradition, celebrated everywhere from village halls in rural Scotland to formal dinners as far away as Russia and the United States — a rare case of a single poet's birthday becoming a fixture on food calendars well beyond his own country.