22 - 24 September 2006 | |
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Highland games are a lot like sci fi cons, pagan gatherings, anime cons and other fan gatherings. The main difference is the subject of interest. At a sci fi con it's science fiction while at a highland games it's Scottish culture. The picture at the left is of Mark MacKenzie wearing the modern version of the traditional kilt in a MacKenzie tartan. Note the sword and the dagger tucked into the sox. Scottish history is violent, so to be authentic men and even some women carry a sword and have several knives tucked away in various places. Unlike English women, Celtic women have a long history of joining their men in the fight. Clan society representatives, performers, athletic competitors, reenactors, and even some members of the general public often attend the games kilted or in costume. I like to think of it as Celtic cosplay. What makes the New Hampshire Highland Games special is the setting. The mountains and the weather (at lest the weather in September when the games are held) are reminiscent of the Scottish highlands. The picture at the right is of Bill Siebert, a reenactor with the 74th. As Bill noted, reenacting makes the reenactors happy. That was a common theme I found running through my conversations with some of the "regulars" who attend many games during the year. A psychologist colleague once used his love of opera to illustrate his belief that the more one knows about a subject - in his case opera - the more happiness it brings. One of the reenactors expressed his own joy at mining through mounds of data and discovering a "nugget" of previously unknown information. My colleague had indeed put his finger on one of the important aspects of fandom in general: becoming an amateur expert in a subject provides an undeniable source of individual happiness. One anime fan recently added that he knew so much detail about a fictitious world that if he knew as much about the real world he would be a professor instead of a fan. | |
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Celtic rock and Celtic jazz have become an integral part of modern highland games in the United States and Canada. Celtic rock doesn't refer to rock bands from a Celtic country such as Ireland, but to a type of rock music that makes use of traditional Celtic instruments, such as bagpipes, and traditional Celtic tunes. The band in these pictures is Albanach. They use lots of drums as well as pipes. A lot of Celtic rock bands have come and gone in recent years, or members have split and regrouped many times. As of the time this was being written, Albanach's website has disappeared. "Oh well, they come they go." | |
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Reenactors are not limited to the distant past. While the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries are popular, WWI, WWII, Korea, and even the Falklands War attract participants. On the left is an example of a more modern reenactment, while on the right is an example of a more traditional one. The Scots have a long history of struggles, sometimes successful, against "Sassenach" domination. "Sassenach" is the Scottish word for "English." Even today a surprising number of Scots support the idea of independence. | |
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On the left is one of the many pipe and drum bands that are a part of all highland games. In this case they are the 48th Highlanders of Canada. One of the most popular events at the Games is the massed bands where several pipe & drum bands play together. Just imagine: hundreds of bagpipes all playing at once. Like haggis (look it up), listening to massed bands is an acquired taste. Competitions based on playing bagpipes in bands, solo piping, highland dancing, fiddling, and the like are an integral part of the games. In addition, athletic events such as pressing a 300 pound log, carrying a 600 pound weight, and sheaf tossing (that's sheaf, not sheep) are also traditional events. But the most popular athletic event is the tossin' o' the caber, otherwise referred to as throwing the telephone poll. Many people here in New England have lost the use of the letter "R." When spoken by a New Englander the word "party," for example, sounds more like the word "potty." The upscale porta-john in the background of the picture on the right left me no choice. I had to call this a group of "potty boys." | |
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The picture at the left is of a contestant preparing to toss the caber. The goal is to make the caber (a telephone pole) flip end over end before landing on the ground. The picture on the right shows the telephone pole high in the air in mid flip. Personally, I would have a better chance of levitating the caber than of tossing it that high into the air. Scottish athletics are not for wimps. Some highland games also hold "athletic" contests for kids where things such as cookies or stuffed sheep are tossed instead of telephone poles. | |
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These two pictures are of merchant tents. This year there was disappointingly little variation in what the different merchants were selling. There were few books, surprisingly few CDs, and no unusual artifacts. From tent to tent the offerings were mostly the same food, the same clothing, the same jewelry, and the same bagpipe paraphernalia. And the variety of food items was also uncharacteristically limited... lots of fish and chips, a few meat pies, no italian sausage no deep-fried mars bars as in past years, and no haggis to speak of. (OK, it's a sausage made of a sheep's heart, lungs, and liver cooked with oatmeal and suet and then boiled in a cleaned sheep stomach. Haggis is typically served on Burns Night, January 25, when Scotland celebrates the birth of their greatest poet, Robert Burns, who single-handedly rescued haggis from the oblivion it so richly deserves. Perhaps that's why so man Scots celebrate Burns Night with copious amounts of whisky.) | |
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