The Scottish Society of Martha’s Vineyard faced a dilemma in planning its 35th Burns Nicht supper this month: How to gather the clans without a gathering place?
Since 1988, society members and guests have donned their plaids to honor the life of 18th-century Scottish poet Robert Burns —and raise money for scholarships — in an evening of food, drink and music. With pandemic restrictions ruling out an in-person supper this year, organizers pulled together videos and photographs from previous Burns Nichts to create a time-traveling virtual event that begins with the very first Vineyard supper in 1988.
“This is happening all across the United States this very weekend,” master of ceremonies Rev. Douglas Dorchester tells the crowd at the Vineyard event’s debut, held that year and nearly every January to follow at the Harbor View Hotel in Edgartown.
The series of videos now posted at the society website, includes Scottish-born Islander Bob MacKay’s delivery of Burns’s Address to a Haggis at the 1988 supper, as well as his final performance in 2016 just weeks before he died.
A centerpiece of every Burns Nicht, the ode salutes Scotland’s most infamous dish — essentially a bag of animal guts and oatmeal —as “Great chieftain o’ the pudding-race … warm, reekin’, rich.”
While the Harbor View chef traditionally serves a gourmet haggis provided by the Scottish Society, participants in this year’s virtual supper were able to pre-order haggis pies, oat cakes and shortbread for pickup before the event began streaming online Saturday night.
Other highlights of the annual event, including toasts to the United States president and the British monarch, a silent auction for the scholarship fund and music by the group’s chorus, are also represented by videos on the website.
Watching the footage, Burns Nicht regulars will recognize such original members as Harvey Ewing, the society’s first president, who died in 1995.
“I’ve often wondered, in the land of the kilt, just who might wear the pants in the Scottish family?” Mr. Ewing jokes in 1988 during the Toast to the Lassies, another annual element — along with a Toast to the Laddies — of Burns suppers worldwide.
Mr. Ewing’s sons Steve and Colin, the Island event’s mainstays in recent years, have included some new material with the archival videos and images on the website.
Singer Dorian Lopes and pianist Bill Peek, recorded at Union Chapel last August, perform a spare and pensive rendition of The Parting Glass. At his home in Scotland, David Roy — a frequent guest and performer at the Vineyard supper — made a video reciting Burns’s Address to the Deil (Devil), prefaced with some timely words for 2021.
“Back in Burns’s day, obviously, medicine was in its infancy and it would have been easy to think that something like a virus would be basically the work of the devil,” Mr. Roy tells his Vineyard audience.
“Throughout the poem, there are references to the devil that could easily be to the virus,” Mr. Roy continues, before launching into Burns’s verses.
The Scottish society is also running a photo contest through Feb. 1, seeking pictures from those who took part in the virtual event. Entries emailed to aquamv@gmail.com will posted on the society website for public voting to choose the first-, second- and third-place winners.
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