As part of the Burns Night celebration, we organised two separate events that captured two central parts of a traditional Burns Supper: the poetry and the food.
Our first event celebrated the songs and poetry of the Scottish Bard. Burns’ songs and poems were shared in Scots along with translations from various European languages such as Romanian, Polish, and Italian. This event developed a multilingual celebration of Burns as each song or text was performed in both Scots and an Eastern European translation, thus creating a multicultural dialogue that cele brated Burns with kindness and inclusivity.
Our participants are also currently working on a collaborative booklet that celebrates ‘A Red, Red Rose’ in five Eastern European languages alongside the original text for everyone to enjoy with their families and multicultural community. A digital copy will be posted on the Povestry website and shared for free with everyone in Scotland and beyond through various social media platforms.
Secondly, we organised a Burns Supper where members of the Eastern European community were invited to share traditional winter recipes from their home countries with a twist. The participants were given only ingredients associated with Burns Supper, for example nips, tatties, and haggis. This event allowed members of the community who are not very confident English speakers to connect through the shared language of food and community cooking, to share their cultural traditions and learn about Burns Night and about Scottish culture. Cooking with Burns brought together new recipes and dinner tales. The gathering shaped a dialogue of equality and inclusivity between diverse communities living in Scotland by sharing different traditional recipes based upon Burns Night from Scotland to Eastern Europe and the Middle East.
Overall, the evening was shaped by a multicultural community coming together to celebrate their heritage and new traditions in our shared home, Scotland. Through poetry and traditional cooking, we shared stories from our native countries, as well as reflections upon our identity as new Scots. Thus, we brought together Eastern European and Scottish voices that help us learn about our past while stepping forward with kindness towards each other and towards the world we all call home.