Hundreds of people enjoyed a Scottish meal and entertainment on Sunday during the annual Robbie Burns celebration for some of the city’s less fortunate.
For the 15th straight year, highland dancers and bag pipers performed for guests of the Calgary Drop-In & Rehab Centre. The guests were treated to traditional haggis as well as roast beef, neeps and taties. More than 50 kg of haggis was prepared for the event.
Robbie Burns Day, which falls on Wednesday, January 25 this year, celebrates Scottish culture with a focus on the bard’s commitment to equality.
"It's especially important, not only in January, but at this time in history that we recognize the equality of every living person, and that everybody is equal to everybody else,” said Robert Henderson of the St. Andrews Caledonian Society. “That's part of Robbie Burns’ philosophy especially when he says at the end of ‘For honest poverty' that come what may the world o'er brothers shall be for all that and all that,"
Organizers say Sunday’s event is the largest Robbie Burns dinner in Canada and enough food was prepared to accommodate 1,000 guests.
With files from CTV’s Bill Macfarlane
