Inventing Tradition or Angst on Tartan Day

Tartan Day Spread

I have been busier than usual the past several weeks (as you might have surmised already), but I thought I could still eke out enough time to continue inventing traditions at my house and celebrate my Scottish heritage on Tartan Day. 


As Tartan Day, 6 April, fell over Easter Weekend, I figured my celebrations had to happen another time. So, I first scheduled (in my head) a Tartan Day potluck on Saturday, 31 March. By the time I send out the Evites, it was a Tartan Day Tea on Sunday, 15 April. And honestly, if I hadn't sent out the Evites when I did, I probably would have given up on the whole thing.


If you'll remember from my attempt to celebrate St. Andrew's Day last fall, everything was a bit hectic. And except for the music, it was equally hectic this past Sunday. I thought I would have time to bake, but didn't. Everything on the table pictured above was purchased at Gaelic Imports or made from a box. I did manage to frame a copy of the famous passage from the Declaration of Arbroath, which I encouraged people to read. The music worked out well because I made a Tartan Day playlist in my Amazon Cloud and played that through my computer. It worked like a charm!


As I was frantically finishing the preparations and fretting - about everything  - I kept repeating something that Erma Bombeck said, "don't worry about whether or not your plates match, just have your friends over." And she was right. Once I got everything on the table (about 15 minutes after the first guests arrived), I settled down and a really great time was had by all. My friends, who came from different areas of my life, all got along just fine and over half the food was gone before the Tea was over.


Tartan Day, for me, was really just an excuse to have company over and there's nothing wrong with that.