Primary Times - the definitive what’s on and where to go family guide of activities and events for children of primary school age. Things to do with your kids during the school holidays including arts and craft activities, music and theatre for children, parties, competitions, days out, and family attractions along with term time drama schools, dance classes, after school clubs and sports activities. Things to do at a place near you!
Robert Burns - Burns Night
Robert Burns may be gone but he has never been forgotten. What day of the year combines haggis, neeps and tatties, and poetry with lots of fun and laughter? Burns Night of course!
Rabbie’s Story
On a wild stormy night….. on 25th January 1759, a baby boy is born in Alloway, Scotland. This little boy
grew up to be one of the best poets who ever lived. Rabbie’s family were poor farming people and children in those days had to go out to work to help support their families. Rabbie’s dad wanted a better life for his children, he wanted them to be educated but only rich families could afford this luxury.
So, Rabbie’s dad got together with other parents to employ a teacher to teach the children to read and write and were later sent away to school. Rabbie didn’t need a pen or ink for ideas, mostly he was inspired by nature. He just kept writing poems and songs….. Auld Lang Syne, Address to a Haggis, A Red, Red Rose, To a Mouse, Tam O’Shanter. Rabbie died aged 37, father to 9 children. The End……
Burns Night
Celebrated annually on Robert Burns’ birthday, 25 January, Burns Night gathers Scots around the 
world to pay tribute to the great poet’s life and works, and to Scottish culture. Perhaps the children are wearing tartan to school for the day, rehearsing one of the Bard’s poems, ceilidh dancing or feasting on a Burns’ school lunch or supper to celebrate Rabbie Burns’ Life and work….
Whether his subject was a man or a mouse (or even a louse), our National Bard’s words have been cherished and passionately recited for the past two centuries by adults and children. Indeed, it's because of this great man that we promise, every Hogmanay, to 'tak a cup o' kindness' with our neighbours and go forward into the New Year with a sense of belonging and hope for the future!
Do the Bard proud on the 25 January 2017; if you are not attending a celebration event create your very own one at home – a poetry recital, an ode to the Haggis, pipe in the haggis with the recorder or chanter, offer a reply to the lassies and a wee family jig to celebrate Rabbie Burns through some family foot-stomping fun, and, of course, a well-loved family Burns supper!
Burns for Weans
To a Mouse
Wee, sleekit, cow’rin, tim’rous beastie,
O, what a panic’s in thy breastie!
Thou need na start awa sae hasty,
Wi’ bickering brattle!
I wad be laith to rin an’ chase thee,
Wi’ murd’ring pattle!
The Haggis Myth!
Haggis is Scotland's national dish and the crowning glory of a traditional Burns Supper, and although it's an object of Scottish culinary fascination around the world, it certainly is not a wild furry three-
legged beast running ‘bout the glen! A tale of where wild land and life unite – the story of Haggis Scoticus, with rough brown fur hiding in dense trees, with two legs shorter than the third to run faster across rough terrain to escape the Haggis huntsmen in search of clans of Haggis!
It’s been a long long time since a wild haggis has been spotted in the wild and nowadays is more likely spotted centre stage at one of Rabbie’s party feasts wi’ the sauncie face. So, abandon the haggis hunting on the to-do list, get the neeps and tatties on, sit doon in yer chair to hae a Burns night supper and enjoy one of Scotland’s most famous icons as part of a feastie.
Burns even wrote about the haggis in his Ode To A Haggis to underline the importance of this Scottish dish and is recited at every Burns supper event!
Happy Burns Night when the time comes……