Wednesday, April 9, 2008

Tartan Day Came and Went Play the pipes lowly. We missed it. National Tartan Day slipped by over the weekend when we weren't looking. Well, I wasn't, anyhow, despite being both a Montgomery and a "Robert Bruce" thanks to my Glasgowegian grandmother. I just lost track. And this was the U.S. National Tartan Day's tenth anniversary, too! Alas, even its "national events" Web page only lists 2007 events. So much for commemorating the signing of the Declaration of Arbroath in 1320, "which asserted Scotland's sovereignty over English territorial claims, and which was an influence on the American Declaration of Independence," according to the Tartan Day Web site. Could be there's just a Lott less enthusiasm for the event since the departure of Sen Trent Lott? He proposed the original Tartan Day resolution in 1997 and presided over the giving of awards to the likes of Sean Connery in past years. However, if you missed April 6 and want to sip a non-partisan single malt or tilt your kilt in honor of Scottish culture, it's still Tartan Week -- at least in New York City. Or maybe you have some use for the "Scottish Theme Wedding" page's collection of Tartan Day lore. (Yes, it opens with a picture of a Tartan Day ceremony at the Alamo.) Closer to home, Arthur Herman, associate professor of history at George Mason and author of How the Scots Invented the Modern World, was among the speakers at an RSVP event in Washington on Friday at the Heritage Foundation. Maybe The Tartan (http://thetartan.com), Radford University's student newspaper, should give him a call and look into doing something about Tartan Day, Tartan Week and Tartan whatnot next April, Radford being "The home of the Highlanders" and all. A search of the paper's archives online doesn't show any references to "Tartan Day," but then neither does a search of its kindred publication http://TheTartan.org at Carnegie Mellon University. You'd think a college newspaper with a national holiday named after its namesake, would get inspired by the idea. 11:10:14 AM    comment []

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