Called Scotland's favourite son, the "Ploughman Poet" and "Bard of Ayrshire" spent his first seven years in this village on the River Doon.
Throughout the year, families and more than 100 communities are preparing celebrations. Tourism officials hope Scots around the world -- and descendants -- will visit, including for clan homecoming called "gatherings."
BOILED PUDDING
Even those who know little of Burns likely know of his Ode To A Haggis.
Scottish organizations mark his birth on Jan. 25 with banquets opened by someone reciting his best-known poem, then plunging a knife into the traditional dish.
The boiled pudding is usually blended sheep organ meats, minced onion, oatmeal, suet, spices, salt and liquid stock, but vegetable versions are also available.
On a recent return to the land of my ancestors, my grandfather's nephew, Dr. Findlay Macdonald, drove me south from Glasgow along the Clyde River. It was our first visit to the clay and thatch-roofed Burns cottage, which is filled with originals and copies of his letters and memorabilia.
The impoverished family moved to a farm in 1766, where heavy work left him permanently stooped and weakened.
SCANDALOUS
He and his six younger siblings were mostly taught at home by their father, tenant farmer William Burness, and a local teacher.
Burns' first poetry and songs were for girls he loved.
Scandalously drawn to dance and drink, he attracted church-goer wrath, especially when his first out-of-wedlock child was born to a servant.
Mind you, Burns was also wooing Jean Armour, daughter of a stonemason. After she bore him two of their nine children, her father relented to their marriage.
The first collection of his verses was printed in 1786. Poems, chiefly in the Scottish dialect, was a major literary event.
Invited to Edinburgh to oversee a revised edition's production, he became a society darling and greatly influenced Walter Scott, who became a famous Scottish historical novelist and poet.
Continuing social, romantic and writing pursuits, Burns penned over 400 songs, collected folk tunes, rejected invitations to be a journalist and a politician, and reconciled with his wife.
The most famous Burns song, Auld Lang Syne, performed around the world each New Year's Eve, is a promise to remember old friends.
With a weak heart and a bacterial infection after a tooth extraction, he died at 37 on July 21, 1796, in Dumfries.
The museum here houses copies of his works, written in both Scottish dialect and English, plus biographies, criticism of the church, the class structure, poverty and sexuality.
There is also great humour, expressed in bawdy tales, support for carousing, Scotch whisky and socialism. Above all, Robbie Burns keept alive the history of Scots in folklore and verse.
Taste of Burns poetry
To give you a taste for the poetry, if not the meal, the original Ode To A Haggis in Scottish dialect begins:
"Fair fa' your honest, sonsie face,
Great chieftain o' the puddin'-race!
Aboon them a' ye tak yer place,
Painch, tripe, or thairm:
Weel are ye wordy o' a grace
As lang's my airm."
A translation on Wikipedia, is perhaps better understood today:
"Nice seeing your honest, chubby face,
Great chieftain of the sausage race!
Above them all you take your place,
Belly, tripe, or links:
Well are you worthy of a grace
As long as my arm."
---
DETAILS
The cottage and museum are in the Burns National Heritage Park, on Alloway's main street, near Ayr, a railway and port town south of Glasgow Prestwick International Airport.
For more information on parades, festive evenings and other events, go online at homecomingscotland.com.To book Jan. 23-26 Burns Night accommodations, including a festive dinner, parades and golf, visit best-of-scotland.co.uk.
Interested in an Alias? ZAP is taking orders!
World’s culture capitals
