Director's Notes - Scottish Revels

Tartan plaid. It’s the image that is most likely to spring to mind with any mention of Scotland. Tartan scarves, tartan tam ‘o shanters, tartan knee socks, even tartan cookie tins and golf bags – and of course that most noble of all repositories of tartan plaidness, the kilt. All over the world, people of Scottish ancestry trace their genealogies back to the old clans and proclaim their identity by wearing the appropriate tartan.

So tied is the tartan to the Scottish identity, that when the British wanted to eradicate Scottish nationalism after the Battle of Culloden in 1746, they passed the Act of Proscription which imposed dire penalties for anyone who dared wear even a single garment made of the colored squares. However in 1822, George IV permitted the codified assignment of tartans to the various clans, and by the reign of Victoria, the tartan plaid had become a fashion vogue.

Although we commonly use terms “tartan” and “plaid” interchangeably, they really have different meanings. A tartan is simply a woven cloth which has the same thread count in the warp and the weft – the two directions of the weave.  This produces the recognizable square pattern. A plaid is, strictly speaking, a sash or length of tartan cloth worn on the upper body, with a kilt below.

The tight pattern of colored squares, each adjoining its neighbors on all sides and threaded together by the run of the warp and weft - it is a symbol of life in community.  We all live our lives as part of a larger fabric, a fabric that will hopefully be put to beneficial ends, made into a useful garment.

Revels celebrates the kinds of song, dance and ritual that remind us of these connections and help us to renew them.  As we take hands to sing “Auld lange syne”, witness the mystery of “Abbot’s Bromley” or enjoy the beauty of traditional Highland dancing, we become weavers.  We are weaving our own plaid – one that not only connects us with family and friends in the here and now, but also casts us onto the warp of the past and the weft of the future. Traditions help us to feel comfortably bound to the deep and complex pattern of human history, and hopeful as we imagine days to come.

Winter Solstice marks the season of loss. The skies have lost the light, the land has lost its sustenance, and human beings can easily lose heart. But the Solstice also marks a turning point when the changing seasons give us the assured hope for springtime and the resolve to carry on.  And so we celebrate the traditions of the Solstice.  We don our tartan plaids and we rekindle the New Year’s fires, we sing up the sun and once again we… Welcome Yule!

David Parr, director