Scottish Information from Ian MacLeod

There are tons of Scottish celebrations around Robbie Burns Day (Jan 25), Tartan Day (April 6 in Argentina, Canada, Scotland and the USA and July 1 in Australia and New Zealand) and hundreds of highland games every year around both Canada a...nd the USA. On October 21, 2010, Tartan Day was formally recognized by the Government of Canada. In the US, on April 4, 2008, President George Bush signed a Presidential Proclamation making April 6th National Tartan Day. Before that, US Senate Resolution 155, passed on March 20, 1998, referred to the predominance of Scots among the Founding Fathers and claimed that the American Declaration of Independence was "modeled on" the Declaration of Arbroath. The Declaration of Arbroath is the declaration of Scottish independence, made April 6, 1320 (following Robert the Bruce’s victory at Bannockburn, near Stirling, on June 24, 1314 – remember the closing battle in Braveheart). That Declaration said, among other things, “for, as long as but a hundred of us remain alive, never will we on any conditions be brought under English rule. It is in truth not for glory, nor riches, nor honours that we are fighting, but for freedom – for that alone, which no honest man gives up but with life itself.” – pretty inspiring stuff! President Woodrow Wilson (28th President, 1913-1921) said of the Scots, "Every line of strength in American history is a line colored with Scottish blood.". The Maple Leaf Tartan was approved as an official symbol of Canada on March 9, 2011. And of course, there is the book by Dr. Arthur Herman (Professor of History at Georgetown University): “How the Scots Invented the Modern World: The true story of how western Europe's poorest nation created our world & everything in it”, November 2001, Crown Publishing Group, NY (the Scots provided free, universal education about 100 years before anyone else in the Western world - it paid off!).