70 guests joined us for our 9th annual Burns Night celebration in Prague.

Another amazing evening, partly thanks to our sponsor Remy Cointreau who provided many wonderful bottles of Highland Park! One of the best single malts in Scotland, and we proved it over and over again... :-)

We followed nearly the traditional format. Following The Gathering (don’t drink too much of those whisky cocktails!), Master of Ceremonies Gordon Howell welcomed Friends of Scotland chairman Václav Rout who officially started the evening with the Selkirk Grace.

Palffy Palac did themselves proud, with a brilliant cock-a-leekie soup starter; followed by a very classy haggis, neeps and tatties. The main course was a succulent lamb, and we finished with the Scottish classic Cranachan. (See our recipes page!) Not only are they one of the best & most romantic restaurants in Prague, based on the dinner, they all have some Celtic blood in them!

Speaking of Haggis, the piping in thereof was a joy, thanks to our chief piper of the night Chip Doehring. We were treated to TWO addresses to the Haggis: first in traditional Scots from the haggis chef, Shetland fiddler Alastair Edwards; and then in a brilliant Czech rendition by actor Jiři Knot.

Organiser Jana Hrstková arranged for 4 recitations of the Burns classic poem: “My love is like a Red Red Rose”. Jana herself did the Czech version; Italian guest Marco Sippione did the romantic Italian version (personally I think it works perfectly in this language!); Josefine Moore performed a touching German rendition. The final, English, recitation went to Australian Chris Moore. We should have known better than to assign something in English, much less cultural, to an Aussie.  So naturally we were treated to the somewhat racier “Nine inches will please a lady”. See the video... :-)

Lukas demonstrated a proper Highland fling, after which we proposed the Loyal Toast to the Queen. Gordon dispensed with the traditional ‘Immortal Memory’, sketching Burns’ life in a couple of sentences and instead using his poem ‘To Scotch Drink’ as a metaphor.  Following the traditional toast to the lassies, with the response by Jana.

Deviating from the norm, our events always feature some fund raising for charity. Our ‘adopted’ charity is Adopce na dálku; helping children in Africa. Specifically we are supporting the mission in Zambia, and we honoured to have as a guest artist Radka Tesařová who has spent considerable time in the country, from which she draws inspiration. She generously donated her work ‘Slon’ (“Elephant”) to the charity auction. After much whisky and wheedling by auctioneer Gordon, we were delighted to raise 21,400 Kč (about €850) for the cause.

Well done everyone! Thanks to Remy Cointreau, Liberty Racing, Václav Rout and Linda Štucbartová for donations to the auction!

We finished the night and into the wee hours under the Celtic melodies of Alastair and his band.  Much dancing (or some approximation thereof) ensued. Those not dancing (and many who were, apparently! :-)  had the opportunity to sample the delightful single malts, both the Highland Park and some other special bottles brought in by Vašek.

Hope to see you next year for auld lang syne!