Burns Night celebrates the life of Scotland’s National Bard, Robbie Burns every January 25th, and there are so many ways that you can toast and celebrate the great poet.
Around the world a lot of bars, restaurants, and groups celebrate the evening, and you can join in at home, or find an event near you.
The legendary poet, who wrote “Auld Lang Syne”, is celebrated usually with whisky, haggis, and reciting some of his works. If you’re not sure how best to enjoy the night, read on for a few of the best ideas to get started in real Scottish style.
Plan your Burns Night
Before you start, there are a lot of resources to learn more about the bard, and how to celebrate Burns Night, but one of the best is Visit Scotland’s Burns Night Guide. You can also check out RobertBurns.org for another guide on how to plan your night.
Next, you may want to consider how you want to celebrate. Do you want to go out, or recreate Burns Night with your own dinner, drinks, and poetry? Or maybe a bit of both.
There are a lot of options if you want to participate in Burns Night. If you want to enjoy a really authentic evening and you’ll be in Scotland, Visit Scotland has a list of events happening in Glasgow and beyond.
In Canada, the Scottish Society of Ottawa is hosting a Burns Supper with virtual entertainment. You can find more information on their website.
You can also do a Google search or Facebook Events search to find Burns Night events anywhere around the world.
Prepare the menu
If you’re cooking at home, tatties, neeps, and haggis are the traditional fare for Burns Night, since they’re classic Scottish food. That means mashed potatoes, turnip or rutabaga, and haggis–a savoury pudding made with oats, sheep’s pluck, and spices.
Of course, you can get creative, but if you go with the traditional approach, the hardest part will be finding haggis. In Canada a number of grocery stores and meat shops carry frozen haggis, like MacSween. When in doubt, call or order ahead since Haggis tends to sell out at a lot of stores around Robbie Burns Day.
For tatties and neeps, you can prepare them separately, or Jamie Oliver has a good recipe for making them together.
Or, some Scottish restaurants are offering orders for pickup. In Toronto, for instance, The Caledonian previously offered a Rabbie Burns Night meal kit. Check with your favourite local restaurant or bar to see what they’re offering and book ahead as these often sell out early.
What to drink
Outside of the haggis, one of the most important parts of Robbie Burns Day is the whisky. If you’re a traditionalist, Scotch is a must, but I think you can toast with any whisky. There are also lots of ideas for alcohol-free drinks to toast the Bard.
If you’re sticking with whisky though, there are dozens and dozens of excellent options. You don’t always need to spend a lot of money for a great whisky, but there is nothing quite like a fine whisky, all the same.
Here are a few of my favourite whiskies:
- Johnnie Walker Black Label Scotch is a widely-available and excellent overall whisky, and it’s generally under $60.
- Lagavulin 8 Year Old Islay Single Malt Scotch whisky is peaty, rich, and sweet with a smooth finish.
- Glenfiddich 15 Year Old Single Malt Scotch Whisky is silky, a little spicy, and smells like vanilla and honey.
- Bowmore 15 Year Old Single Malt Scotch Whisky is beautiful, with flavours of dark chocolate, sherry, and spice.
- For a Canadian dram, Alberta Premium or Alberta Premium Cask Strength are two delicious 100% Rye whiskies.
Read Robert Burns’ poetry
At the heart of what made Robert Burns so popular around the world is the bard’s incredible writing. He was a prolific author, and today he’s still celebrated in Canada, the United States, Japan, and beyond. His work is referenced in everything from film, television, books, and music, and even Abraham Lincoln was a fan.
For a serious deep-dive into the bard’s poems and songs, RobertBurns.org has all 559 of his works, and you can even browse them in chronological order.
Scotland.org has a wonderful collection of Burns’ most notable works too, including “A Man’s A Man For A’ That”, “Ae Fond Kiss”, “Auld Lang Syne”, “To A Mouse” and “A Red, Red Rose”, “Tam O’Shanter”, and of course, “Address To A Haggis”.
![Robert Burns](https://www.thegate.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Robert-Burns-359x440.jpg)
“Fair fa’ your honest, sonsie face,
Great chieftain o’ the pudding-race!
Aboon them a’ yet tak your place,
Painch, tripe, or thairm:
Weel are ye wordy o’a grace
As lang’s me arm.”
— Address To A Haggis
The Music
Finally, bagpipe music is very traditional for Burns Night, and Spotify or Apple Music have a number of albums, and playlists to help liven up your evening.
Spotify, for instance, has This Is Robert Burns, a collection of 29 songs and readings, including “Address To A Haggis” by Gordon Kennedy.
For easy listening, Traditional Scottish Folk offers a more relaxed mood, but for proper Scottish bagpipe music, it’s hard to top Bagpipes and Drums of Scotland. Or if you’re looking for a more modern mix of pop and rock music, there’s Made In Scotland.
Learn more about traditional Scottish music.
Happy Burns Night!
Enjoy, have fun, and slàinte mhath!
Jan 25
![Dance Like Yer Dad - Disko-phunc Released - 1995 Label - Fire Island Records Bathgate, Hamilton, Saltcoats , Cumbernauld, Ayr, Arbroath, Elgin, Perth. These towns are the Chicago's and Detroit's of Scottish old School dance music. The music of ice rink discos , raves , underage parties , school playgrounds , house parties and modified boy racer cars. 🏴 So many of these Scottish belters waiting to be rediscovered. Ps, happy burns night troops 🐑🥃 #nowplaying #dancelikeyerdad #house #oldschool #belter #belters4u #scottishravescene #90shouse #eurohouse #90srave #ravers #clubbing #djblog #burnsnight](https://www.thegate.ca/wp-content/plugins/instagram-feed-pro/img/placeholder.png)
Jan 25
![‘O my Luve's like a red, red rose, O That's newly sprung in June; O My Luve's like the melodie O That's sweetly play'd in tune.’ On #BurnsNight find his manuscript ‘A Red, Red Rose’ (1794) in the link in our bio ☝️ 📜Transcript of Add MS 22307 (1788-94), Robert Burns 🌹10.Tab.29 #OTD #BritishLibrary #Library #Collection #Burns #RobertBurns #Rose](https://www.thegate.ca/wp-content/plugins/instagram-feed-pro/img/placeholder.png)
Jan 25
![“ᴡᴇᴇ, ꜱʟᴇᴇᴋɪᴛ, ᴄᴏᴡʀɪɴ, ᴛɪᴍ’ʀᴏᴜꜱ ʙᴇᴀꜱᴛɪᴇ, ᴏ, ᴡʜᴀᴛ ᴀ ᴘᴀɴɪᴄ’ꜱ ɪɴ ᴛʜʏ ʙʀᴇᴀꜱᴛɪᴇ!” ... Have you got any clue what this poem is about?! This evening it’s Burns Night and it’s fitting that this photo is outside The Writers Museum in Edinburgh that commemorates the lives of three of Scotland’s most famous author including good old Rabbie (Robert) Burns! ... On Burns Night it’s tradition to have a wee dram, a haggis supper and read Burns poetry (in particular the address to a haggis) and this year I’ve been sharing that with my housemates - might even try a spot of ceilidh dancing which is really not the same with only four but we’ll see 😅 ... One of my favourite Burns lines is from the poem above: “The best-laid schemes o’ Mice an’ Men Gang aft agley” This translates to mean that the best thought out and well put together plans for both mice and men go often wrong and don’t happen or don’t happen as you think! It’s a very useful line to think of just now when all of our plans are gang aft agley from the smallest to the biggest - but we’re experiencing it all together. Happy Burns Night - raise a dram of whiskey or a glass of Irn Bru to the Scots 🥃 🏴🥃🖋 ... #edinburgh #scotland #burnsnight #travelgirl #passionpassport #travelblog #ladystairsclose #writersmuseum #travelblogger #girlstraveluk #girlstraveleurope #girlsfrombehind #travelgirlshub #visitscotland #lovegreatbritain #theprettycities #dreamylittleplaces #yourbritain #edinburghgrammer #edinburghclicks #thisisedinburgh #loves_edinburgh #visitedinburgh #edinburghlbb #hidden_edinburgh #unlimitededinburgh #lovescotland #hiddenscotland #scotlandgrammer](https://www.thegate.ca/wp-content/plugins/instagram-feed-pro/img/placeholder.png)
Jan 28
![January - London - Art - Culture - Fashion dazed halcyongallery balloon_museum broadwicksoho somersethouse #cuteexhibition #andywarhol editionlondon #burnsnight kanechristopher82](https://www.thegate.ca/wp-content/plugins/instagram-feed-pro/img/placeholder.png)
Jan 25
![Happy Burns Night! 🏴 Rabbie Burns is Scotland’s National poet. Born in Ayrshire on this day in 1759. Burns only lived to the age of 37 and on this day all around the world people come together to celebrate his life and works with a traditional Haggis, Neeps and Tatties dinner whilst enjoying his works and maybe a wee whisky or three! Happy Burns Night all! 🥃 🏴 #scotland #scottish #visitscotland #visitscotlandtours #travel #travelblogger #travelgram #beautifuldestinations #mustvisit #scotlandtravel #scotlandexplore #scotlandhighlands #scottishhighlands #highlands #edinburgh #stirling #robertburns #burnsnight #rabbieburns #vacation #vacations #vacationmode #outlander #outlanderfans #clan #castle #castles #tour #tourguide #kilt](https://www.thegate.ca/wp-content/plugins/instagram-feed-pro/img/placeholder.png)
Jan 23
![Something Scottish in honour of burns night this week! Usually it's whisky and haggis... but I was given this great book for Christmas called 'Made in Scotland'. It was all bout Scottish brands and inspired this illustration💗 I think the shortbread and the loaf turned out to be my favourite parts. Love using a tartan with absolutely zero sense of perspective 😆 There were so many other elements I wanted to fit into this illustration so maybe there might be another Scottish themed piece later this week 😊 if not, enjoy burns night when it comes 🥃 #scottishillustrator #foodillustration #burnsnight #scottishness #illustrationart](https://www.thegate.ca/wp-content/plugins/instagram-feed-pro/img/placeholder.png)
Jan 25
![Gie me ae spark o' Nature's fire That's a' the learning I desire. . ~ Robert Burns . The most beautifully fiery sky of this winter so far seems appropriate for the birthday of Robbie Burns. . This was taken a few weeks ago when I posted a similar picture, but I thought a sky like this was worth sharing again. . Happy Burns night (and day) to all those who celebrate. . . #thebeautyinwinter #rawallnature #alittlebeautyeveryday](https://www.thegate.ca/wp-content/plugins/instagram-feed-pro/img/placeholder.png)
Jan 25
![🥡🖼️❤️ DID SOMEONE ORDER A TAKE - AWAY? 🥡🖼️❤️ X Well I did! Six delicious and perfectly packaged works of art with a KING a QUEEN and a REYNOLDS amongst them 🙌❤️ X This family collection has been released from loan to an HISTORIC CASTLE in order to be dished out PIPING HOT by me with a side serving of HISTORY and yes...HUMOUR! 😉😆 X So if you have a collection that you would like to be APPRAISED and SOLD in the knowledge that it will reach its FULL POTENTIAL .. then you know where to find me 🕵️♂️🏆 X Got to dash.. it's time to TAP .... and UNWRAP! ✂️🔥💥 X Happy Burns Night to you all 🏴🥃💥 X #burnsnight #myheartbelongsinscotland #portraits #periodportraits #valuation #sales #equityrelease #potential](https://www.thegate.ca/wp-content/plugins/instagram-feed-pro/img/placeholder.png)
Jan 25
![Happy Burns Night from Scotland everyone! 🏴 Here's a wee throwback photo of me and the man himself. I couldn't see exactly what he was writing but I have a hunch it was 'The Birks of Aberfeldy' 😉 Tonight, I'm celebrating Rabbie's life and work by having my own #BurnsNightIn featuring haggis, neeps, and tatties (of course!) plus my attempt at a creamy whisky sauce. I've also just received a #gifted package of goodies from johnniewalkerprincesstreet with everything I need to create some delicious whisky cocktails. I'll be joining their live whisky masterclass which you can get involved too, by tuning into their account at 6.30pm. There are various other online events which have been brought together by burnsandbeyond - check out their website for all the info. Keep an eye on my Stories for some wee snippets of what I get up to this evening. Will you be toasting Rabbie Burns tonight? 🥃 #burnsnight #burnsandbeyond #JWPrincesStreet](https://www.thegate.ca/wp-content/plugins/instagram-feed-pro/img/placeholder.png)
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