Celebrating St Andrews Day in St Andrews
St Andrews, Scotland is the Place to Be on St Andrews Day 2009
Oct 14, 2009
The apostle St Andrew, who died during the first century AD, is associated with many places across the world; not least of all Patras in Greece, where he was martyred and where the majority of his relics now lie. But tradition tells of St Andrew’s relics being taken from Patras to Scotland at some point between the fifth and eighth centuries AD. A church was founded as a result and as a result a town with the saint as its namesake grew up. St Andrews and all of Scotland have been celebrating the occasion since at least the eleventh century. Yet 2009 will mark the most important year of celebrations thus far.
Scottish Homecoming Festival 2009
The reason is that this year also marks the 250th anniversary of Robert Burns, Scotland's best-known and most-revered poet. The country has marked the occasion by celebrating Homecoming 2009: an eleven month long extravaganza of festivals and events nationwide. Homecoming, which began back on January 25th (Burns Night) is set to finish in some style this St Andrews Day, on November 30th, particularly in St Andrews itself.
Celebration of Scottih Heritage
Homecoming is about a celebration of all things Scottish: especially the national icons of Burns, the drinking of whisky, golf, ancestry and great Scottish innovators. St Andrews is in many ways a melting pot of all these Scottish buzz words: after all it has a history stretching back over a millennium and is the birthplace of golf. So it’s not surprising that this year the revelry arranged for St Andrews Day incorporates the best of the traditional Saint’s day celebrations with a dash of Homecoming festive panache thrown in.
St Andrews Day 2009 Special Events
Special events this year will also include whisky tastings, a genealogy day where information on local history will be available, and a chance to see the inside of arguably the world’s most famous golf club, the Royal and Ancient Golf Club.
Tradition will as always form the bulk of the festival and the three-day celebrations will feature Britain’s biggest Son et Lumiere each evening: an outdoor lights show that is set to depict St Andrews throughout the centuries, including the bringing of the Saint’s relics to the site of the town in the Dark Ages. On the final day, there will be the famous beating retreat by the pipe band followed by a street ceildh and fireworks.
To get further information on the main events, venues like the Byre Theatre in St Andrews will be selling ticket.
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