Posted on April 6, 2022
Key Points
This is an update of my post published on April 6, 2011:
Today is a day to honor your Scottish ancestors—if you’ve got ’em!
Why April 6? The date goes back a loooong time, to April 6, 1320, when the “Scottish Declaration of Independence” was signed by Scottish nobility in Arbroath Abbey.
Why “tartan”? Tartan is a plaid pattern of criss-crossing horizontal and vertical stripes in various colors. Scottish kilts almost always have a tartan pattern. The pattern is not called “plaid” in Scotland; a plaid is a tartan cloth worn slung over the shoulder, or a tartan blanket.
Different tartan patterns, with distinctive colors, used to be associated with the region of Scotland in which it was made, but since the mid-1800s, the different tartans came to be associated with different clans (families).
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| Wallace |
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Buchanan |
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| There are a variety of tartans associated with some families. Here are 8 different tartans for the MacDonalds! |
Find out more about Tartan Day here.
Try making your own tartan.
Some celebrations of Tartan Day might include playing bagpipes, doing Scottish dances, holding parades, or putting on Scottish games. Have fun!
Also on this date:
TeflonDay
Painter John William Waterhouse’s birthday
Chakri Day in Thailand
Celebrating Raphael
Anniversary of Post-It Notes first sold
Slow Art Day
Hostess Twinkie Day
Anniversary of the first (maybe?) humans to stand at the North Pole
First modern Olympic Games
National Bookmobile Day
(Wednesday of National Library Week)
Plan ahead:
Check out my Pinterest boards for:
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April holidays
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April birthdays
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Historical anniversaries in April
And here are my Pinterest boards for:
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May holidays
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May birthdays
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Historical anniversaries in May
