On the 30th of January Brasenose College came together for Burns Night, a night where we celebrate the life and works of the quintessential scot, the man who puts Nicola Sturgeon to shame, the immortal Robert Burns. Robert Burns was born on 25th January 1759, in South Ayrshire, to William Burness, a poor Scottish farmer. From humble beginnings he was to to become the national poet of Scotland and is celebrated around the world with toasts to his memory held every year around this time.
Organising this dinner poses peculiar challenges at Brasenose college; namely we are not all Scottish. Yet, in true Brasenose style, that didn't stop us from channeling our inner Scot.
The evening began with a procession through College following some spectacular bagpipes playing by the multitalented biologist Ed Lavender. Then there was the address to the haggis where, after a slightly delayed arrival, Stephen McCall cut up the haggis with much vigour and (as I am sure Burns’ must have have imagined it) with the help of an iPad.
After a meal of haggies, neeps, and tatties, we moved on to the evenings entertainments. First of all was the immortal memory proposed by our resident Welsh nationalist Fleur Snow. Fleur spoke about why she believed Burns’ work had achieved immortality. She further emphasised that it is not necessarily just Burns that attracts us to his work but that we see much of ourselves in his writings; his works were the result of his friends, just as much of what we do here today at Brasenose is the result of our friends.
Then we moved on to the Toast to the Lassies; a speech that traditionally thanked the women for their hard efforts in the kitchen. Whilst none of the women at the dinner did in fact help out in the kitchen, it still seemed right to toast to their achievements over the last year. Matt Burwood, who pointed out that the only criteria he fitted for this speech was that he was indeed a man, spoke of how women are doing a lot more than cooking in the kitchen nowadays in Scotland, they now lead the three main parties at Holyrood. Alisha Wright led the reply from the lassies, and amazingly, she is actually Scottish! One out of three isn't bad!
This was followed up by an assortment of Burn’s poetry with several attempts to read a verse of McGonagall’s’ “The Demon Drink”. The Senior Tutor, Simon Smith, definitely blew everyone away with his Scottish accent.
The night ended with the traditional ceilidh (a Scottish dance pronounced kay-lee somehow). The tables were pushed aside and the Oxford University Ceilidh Band introduced the dancing. After over an hour of spinning and reeling to the live band the evening concluded with the gathered company singing Auld Lang Syne. Overall a greatly enjoyable evening here at Brasenose.
By Louis Trupia (Second Year History and Politics)