How This All Started
The Force ran strong in us, all tartaned up and nowhere to go. Many of us with Scottish ancestry, either thick or thin, gathered around the magnificent table in the dining room of Perry Stewart's historic house. We, happy few, were actually twenty-two sitting around that colossal table. We made our own Burns Night with Scottish accents as best we could to do justice to the Ode to Haggis. Word spread around Havre de Grace, and by the second year, the humble celebration had grown to 96 attendees. Three separate cocktail parties flooded Union Avenue with kilts and tartan plaids marching with a bagpipe heading to the Vandiver Inn's party tent. There we had a more formal ceremony with Scottish drinking rites, and Claymore Swords held high. Year three grew to 150 attendees, five cocktail parties, and a three-day festival supported by the Vandiver Inn and the newly re-opened State Theater in town. Even during the pandemic, 60 stalwart Scottish souls came again to the Vandiver with tartans and masks and haggis and Scotch. The recognition of Burns Night has sent deep roots into the Havre de Grace community. The Scottish in us are eager to come out in January for all things Celtic.