Highland games are popular festivals in North America, where many people of Scottish descent live. But they are more popular in their native Scotland. It is their untamed simplicity that shows how even the most troubled Scots can forget their troubles at nine o’clock and throw a really good party.
The Highland Games of St. Andrews always come on the last day of July (July 25 this year) and are always held. in the meadow at North Haugh, on the edge of the town hall. People come from all over Fife to see them, even though they are only one of a whole series of Highland Games in the area and Fife is technically the Lowlands not the Highlands. The hours usually run from 11am to 5pm, although some competitions start earlier than 11 and people can stay later than 5.
At their heart, the Highland Games focus on a series of competitions of skill, strength, speed and endurance. The goal is on the grassy field where the fights take place. These include foot races, bicycle races and more exotic sports such as caber tossing. For those who don’t know what a caber is, it’s a very long stick that you have to pick up at one end, balance it vertically and throw it as far as you can. It’s a bit like shooting for the Flintstones.
The other two major competitions are bagpipes and Highland dancing. The judges of the bagpipes were placed in the western field under shade trees. The young pipers enter the ring and stand before the judges. First they run through the scales, then they make the piece they have been grinding. The flutes are a bit cozy, so you can always hear someone tuning or practicing under the trees before the actual exam.
Highland dancing takes place on a raised wooden stage. Girls in various age groups dance as a Highland choreographed group. In conservative Scotland, pipers are usually boys and dancers are usually girls, but this is slowly changing.
Both the dancers and the pipers wear various Highland tartan garments, in their kinship affiliation. It is a major social faux pas to wear a familiar tartan that is not one’s own, since tartan is socially recognized as old formal in Scotland, especially for men. Scottish men wear kilts to functions (such as weddings and funerals) that require black tie. Both Highland and Lowland families now have tartan (although it is the Highland custom).
Scots take their tartan and related associations very seriously, more so than foreigners. Some Campbells and MacDonalds, for example, still don’t speak to each other three and a half centuries after the massacre at Glencoe. In addition, if you go to the Rob Roy Visitor Center in Callander, you will notice that the gift shop is full, many of them in a variety of tartans, which are conspicuously absent from the Campbells.
Around the fighting field and inside the brawls and dances he runs with fixed shoes. This includes a variety of Scottish-themed food and drink, crafts, clothing and local music for sale. There is, of course, a tent of beer praying, which is also a summer holiday in Britain. But this being Scotland, you’ll also find a booth selling single malts and whiskey and whiskey liqueurs, with enough free samples to get the non-alcoholics nicely buzzed. You can also find pouring whiskey, hard candles, smoking fish on an open fire, ice cream and the usual xxx and whatever.
Prices are honest and you can get in for free after 3pm. Even though people come from all over the world, the games are organized with the locals in mind. As the Scottish economy is particularly bad, a lot of people can’t afford and can’t afford to spend a lot of money to make ends meet.
So, if you ever happen to be in St Andrews at the end of July, head to the Highland Games and check it out.
Report:
- “Fife Direct – St Andrew Highland Games 2006” (www.visitdunkeld.com/scottish-highland-games. htm)” Calendar of Highland Meetings and Highland Games July 2005″ (www.travelscotland. co. uk/highland_games/highland_games_july2005.htm
