As regular readers of these missives will know by now, January 25 is Robbie Burns Day – and this year, to make it even more special, January 25 falls on a Saturday (and for at least one great idea for how to celebrate on this day, keep reading).

As special and wonderful as Robbie Burns Day is, it’s clearly not in the pantheon of the big holidays. This is an injustice that cries out to be remedied. But how can this be done? Thanks for asking. My suggestion is to have a mascot be the face of Robbie Burns Day.

I know what all the Burns purists will say – Robert Burns is Scotland’s greatest poet, his work is celebrated around the globe, how can we even think trivializing the stature of this great man by making a mascot the face of his day, blah, blah, blah. And I have two words for people holding that opinion. Jesus. Christ.

Think about it. The holidays associated with Jesus are the biggest bar none. Everything stops on Christmas Day (other than the radio stations in the midst of their three months of all Christmas music playlists) and then again just a few months later on Good Friday and Easter Sunday. But if you ask most people in North America who they associate with Christmas, the first name you’ll get is Santa Claus. And if you ask the same question to people about Easter, the first name that comes up isn’t even a person, it’s the Easter Bunny. So, it takes a fat guy in a red suit and a rabbit to put that Jesus fellow at number one on the holiday charts and I figure if it’s good enough for Jesus it should damn well be good enough for Robbie Burns.

As for who or what should be the symbol of Robbie Burns Day I don’t know – I’m the big ideas guy, I leave the details to other folks – isn’t that what thought leaders do (whatever a thought leader is).

As promised earlier however, I can provide a great way to celebrate Robbie Burns Day if you live in and around Toronto (or if you want to drive or fly in from wherever in the world you happen to be). What you want to do is make your way over to the Free Times Café (still located on College just west of Spadina), where Gordon’s Acoustic Living Room will once again be presenting our Robbie Burns Night extravaganza.

For those unfamiliar with this extravaganza (and I think the word extravaganza barely captures the scale of the evening) let me describe it to you. It begins at around 8:00 with what I call the Musical Portion featuring a subset of the Living Room delivering a wonderful selection of tunes that are sure to delight you. At some point after 9:00 the music will be replaced by the screeching and howling of bagpipes and drums coming in from the cold which will symbolize the beginning of the second part of the evening which is best described as The Bagpipe and Haggis portion.

As the name suggests, this part features lots and lots and lots of songs with bagpipes and, when the bagpipes aren’t playing, haggis (which for those unfamiliar with it is allegedly a food that you can, but are not required, to consume). And if all that is not enough, there will also be some Burns recitations and highland dancing too.

Burns Night at the Free Times is always a big deal and so I would suggest if you want to get a good seat, or frankly any seat, you may want to get there a bit before 8:00. Incredibly, because Robbie Burns was a man of the people (I’m making this up, but it could be true) there is no cover charge but suggestions for a mascot for Burns Day are welcome.

Hope to see you there.

Jonathan

P.S. And I need to be clear about the lots and lots and lots of bagpipes during the second part of the evening, I really do mean it – so consider yourself warned (or perhaps intrigued).