Scotland

The capital of Scotland is Edinburgh. Scotland is part of the United Kingdom. It has it’s own parliament, legal system, education system and eve it’s own international football team. History: the Romans never conquered Scotland. Between AD 120 and 140, they built Hadrian’s Wall, a huge wall of 118 km, to protect their Empire south of the Scottish border. In the middle ages, Scotland became a united country. There were many wars between England and Scotland. In 1603 the Scottish king, James VI, became king of England and a century later Scotland and England were united.

Scotland celebrates New Year, with bagpipe music and dancing in the street ow the night. At midnight, there are fireworks and everyone sings ,,Auld lang syne’’. Scottish families go friend and relations to continue the celebrations!

25 January Scotland celebrate Burns Night. Robert Burns is Scotland’s national poet and Scottish people have a big dinner every year to celebrate his birthday. The dinner begins with the sound of bagpipes and the ‘haggis’, Scotland’s national dish, a kind of sausage made from the heart and other organs of a sheep. Then everyone reads poems and sings song written by the great ‘Rabbie Burns’ himself.

Nearly every weekend in summer there are highland games somewhere in Scotland, but the biggest games are at Cowal. People from all over the world come to watch or take part. Over 3000 bagpipers and drummers play all day and there is a wonderful atmosphere. There are highland dancing competitions as well as events like throwing the hammer or ‘tossing the caber’ – throwing a large tree as far as possible. All the athletes wear traditional kilts.

Edinburgh is famous all over world for it’s arts festival. There is an Official Festival for theatre, opera and classical music, and a ‘Fringe’ festival, where you can see a big variety of plays, concerts, dance performances and films. Finally, there is the Military Tattoo, a parade, held in Edinburgh Castle.