I was so proud of myself, creating the drafts for these theme weeks on my phone so I could use the country’s flag in the title from my emoji list. But I feel like a traitor because it doesn’t have the flag for Scotland, only Great Britain (United Kingdom). I know, technically, Scotland is part of the United Kingdom and therefore does not have it’s own country flag. Still, I’m so sorry, homeland!
What’s so interesting to me is that I unintentionally picked the same week to focus on Scotland that some huge changes took place on the world stage. England voted by a narrow margin (52% to 48%) to leave the European Union, and Prime Minister Cameron is resigning his post by the fall of this year, due to his campaign for England to remain a part of the multi-national system. This happened right Scotland voted overwhelmingly to remain in the EU, so now there is immediate pressure for another referendum on independence from Britain for Scotland. So who knows? Maybe Scotland will have its own flag in the near future. In the meantime, I have so very relevant global news to share with my kids as we study Scotland!
We started this week with a bang by attending the Pikes Peak Celtic Festival, which we have never been to. It was wonderful!
We wandered through a huge tent of vendors and coveted many things, one especially was a pin called a luckenbooth. It is similar to the Irish claddagh symbol but is Scottish in origin, which, combined with the fact that I’ve never heard of it before, made it very appealing to me. It has entwined hearts with a Scottish thistle, topped by a crown. Here’s the story from scotclans.com:
It has entwined hearts with a Scottish thistle, topped by a crown. Here’s the story from scotclans.com:
The Luckenbooth brooch became a very popular item in 16th century Scotland. It featured the heart and crown – the ‘Heart & Crown of Scotland’ and was romantically linked to the tragic Mary, Queen of Scots as it was the brooch she had given to Lord Darnley. The tradition was that the young man would give his lady the brooch on their wedding day. When their first child arrived the brooch would then be pinned to the babies shawl to protect it from “evil spirits”. As such it had very similar connotations to the Irish ‘Claddagh’ ring especially with the similar heart shaped theme.
There were also competitions like caber tossing, sheaf tossing, clachneart or “stone” throwing, and weight throwing, all derived from the ancient Highland Games initiated by King Malcolm Ceanmore, who began his reign in 1057, and used the games to improve the athletic abilities of his military.
There was a mix of traditional and modern bands to give us a good soundtrack to the day.
And my sneaky surprise for Mike: I signed him up for the Braveheart 5k, complete with blue face paint, a beer glass, a token for a free beer after the race, a weekend pass to the whole festival, and the Spirit of Scotland Tartan kilt (for only $25!)! Mike has always wanted a kilt, and this deal was too good to pass up. Although it might have backfired on me, because now he wants a full kilt ensemble in his clan tartan! That will be a big gift to save up for.
The kids had fun using the extra face paint.
And we ended the magical day with dancing in the sunset, a performance by Celtic Steps, World Champion Dancers, and fireworks!
Since that was such a spectacular day, we took it easy on Father’s Day. The kids did get Mike a Lego bow tie though!
And that was just the beginning of the week! We also made thistles; listened to Celtic music all week long; researched Scotland, Scottish myths, and Celtic history and art, both from our personal library and our local one; colored pictures of Celtic art, the Loch Ness monster, and kids from Scotland; looked through my Scotland photo albums from my study abroad there; and watched Brave, Braveheart, and King Arthur.
And to top it all off, we had dinner at Jack Quinn’s, a local Irish pub (because saying Irish-Scottish is like saying wet-water, right? it’s the closest we could come to local Scottish fare). We went on Thursday when they sing Irish pub songs, and Alex even got to drum for one song!
