British Expat Blog

Macsween of Edinburgh has launched a new range of catering pack products, just in time for St Andrews in November and, of course, Burns in January.

Macsween is a Scottish family business which specialises in the production of traditional Scottish haggis, the national dish of Scotland.  The Macsween family recipe, handed down from generation to generation, is still used today.

The earliest references to haggis date back to ancient Greek texts, and there are claims that the dish may well have come to Scotland in a Viking longboat around the time of the Nordic invasions in the ninth century.

Haggis reached literary fame in the words of Scotland’s famous poet, Robert Burns, in the 18th Century.  It is largely through the celebrations  of his birth on the 25th January each year, that the eating of haggis has become a certain ritual.

Burns wrote The Address to a Haggis, now a world famous poem, recited at every Burns Supper all over the world.  To an extent, it is because of Burns that haggis has retained such a Scottish identity.

The story of St George is shrouded in mystery and legend, so it’s difficult to find hard and fast facts about his life.

However, according to the Royal Society of St George, George is generally believed to have been born in Turkey, sometime around 280 AD. He served in the Roman army during the reign of Diocletian, a pagan emperor.

After converting to Christianity, George left the military to campaign against Rome’s persecution of Christians, but he was imprisoned and tortured in an effort to make him renounce his faith. He stayed true to his beliefs and was eventually beheaded at Nicomedia, near Lydda in Palestine, on 23 April, 303 AD.

The link between St George and England was formed in the 14th century, during the reign of Edward III. Edward founded the Order of the Garter in 1348, which he put under the patronage of St George. St George became the special protector of the English, whose soldiers were required to wear the sign of St George.

It wasn’t until 1415 AD that St George became the patron saint of England, when English soldiers under Henry V won the battle of Agincourt. In Shakespeare’s Henry V, the King famously invoked St George as England’s patron saint by crying: “Cry God for Harry, England and St George”.

With thanks to www.celebratestgeorgesday.com - a very informative website offering history, legend, events, and recipes for St Georges Day.