NEW BRUNSWICK TARTAN DAY

The Scottish perspective on history is a long one, and they commemorate their cultural identity through special anniversaries. Each year, Scots and their descendants around the world celebrate their homeland on November 30th, the Feast of Saint Andrew, Patron Saint of Scotland. On January 25th, they celebrate Scottish literature on the birthday of the poetic genius, Robbie Burns. During the last decade, there has been a movement in the global Scottish community to add a third high day to the cultural calendar. First adopted in Nova Scotia in the late 1980’s, the Tartan Day movement spread to Canada’s other provincial and territorial jurisdictions in the first half of the 1990’s, the United States by Act of Congress in 1998, and now to Australia and New Zealand. Scots have been successfully lobbying their governments to recognize April 6th as TARTAN DAY. Tartan Day has become a celebration of the contributions of Scots and their descendants to their respective communities.

Here, in New Brunswick, Tartan Day has been celebrated since 1993. On December 11th, 1992, a resolution was introduced in the New Brunswick Legislative Assembly at Fredericton by Georgie Day, MLA for Kings Centre. The following April 6th, it was proclaimed that April 6th of that year, and each year thereafter, would be known in New Brunswick as Tartan Day, a day on which to remember and appreciate the contributions made to Canada and to New Brunswick by Scottish immigrants and their descendants.

According to the Tartan Day Proclamation issued by then-premier Honourable Frank McKenna:

Scottish immigrants and their descendants have played, and will continue to play, a major role in the development of the Canadian and New Brunswick identity. Therefore, it is with great pleasure that I declare today, April 6, and every April 6 thereafter, as Tartan Day in New Brunswick.

According to New Brunswick Scottish Cultural Association President Daniel Taylor, “It is an opportunity for those of us of Scottish descent to celebrate the achievements and contributions that have been made and will continue to be made to our community, Province and Country.”

Why was April 6th chosen to celebrate Tartan Day? It was on April 6th, 1320, that the Scottish nobility, following the Second War of Scottish Independence, issued the Declaration of Arbroath. This document was forwarded to Pope John XXII in Avignon, France, establishing the historical independence of Scotland and the rights of the Scottish people (read nobility) to choose their own monarch - no matter how vehemently the King of England claimed otherwise. It is, perhaps, the most important document in Scottish political history, effectively the Scottish "delaration of independence." Consequent, Tartan Day in New Brunswick is also a day to celebrate freedom - the freedom to acknowledge and to remember our Scottish heritage.

The New Brunswick Scottish Cultural Association is the organization that represents those who hold Scottish culture and cultural activities as their birthright, and also for those others who appreciate the very same cultural activities and influences.

The New Brunswick Tartan was designed by Loomcrofters of Gagetown, New Brunswick, and officially adopted by the province in 1959. The tartan is registered at the Court of The Lord Lyon, King of Arms in Scotland, central registry for Scottish heraldry. Represented in the design are the forest green of lumbering, the meadow green of agriculture, the blue of coastal and inland waters, all interwoven with gold, a symbol of the province's potential wealth. The red background represent the loyalty and allegiance of the early Loyalist settlers and of the Royal New Brunswick Regiment.

It is with this in mind that the New Brunswick Scottish Cultural Association asks each and every person of Scottish descent to don their tartan to commemorate this important day. Please visit the NBSCA Events Calendar to see how your community will be commemorating Tartan Day.