"Scottish Festival" New Hampshire Travelogue by where2next

Perhaps most synonymous with Scotland are bag pipes and kilts. On the festival grounds, many persons wore kilts from young kids all the way up to grand-parents. Perhaps the funniest was a Harley-Davidson-like biker with many tattoos who was in a kilt. On the southern part of the grounds, the sounds of bands or individual players could be heard as they practiced for competitions.

These individual tents are of "Clans", or Scottish families. Many know very well their genealogy and the many branches of their family tree.

Like many cultures, folk dancing is apart of their tradition.

Another aspect of the festival was traditional Scottish games. In this one, called Caper, folks pick up a telephone-like pole and then toss it forward. I was talking with someone about how these games developed, and we joked that it might have been a bunch of guys who had been drinking Scotch and/or Beer, and they challenged each other...though I'm sure there's probably a more practical reason on how they developed.

Another tent was set up for musical acts which ranged from individual performers to bands. The songs were very good with a couple bands incorporating both the old (bagpipes and fiddles) with the new (guitars).

There was an exhibit on uniforms and armor. Reminds one of Braveheart. Here I had a conversation with a festival volunteer about kilts. He mentioned that cold weather was a reason for the development of kits as well as blankets that Scots would carry on their backs. Apparently the blanket was 4 1/2 yards long. The person mentioned that seamstresses would cut the cloth in half resulting in 9 yards; and hence the origins of the phrase the "whole nine yards" (not sure if this is the origins though it sounds like a plausible reason).

Here are a couple of war eagles (I think their eagles, might be falcons or the like). Fortunately, the birds were each on their own leash!

Back to the games...in this one both gals and guys would toss a 28 or 56 pound weight over a bar. They would do this by swinging the weight (which had a handle) between there legs and then tossing it over their heads backwards and hopefully over the bar. I guess another drinking game :)

I found the below link - I never realized just how many of these festivals are held.

Highland Net.