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From our Foreign Correspondent: No room for turkey in Scotland
by ForeverPlaid 
View from Abroad
The Scottish flag
This is one in a series of reports from our Foreign Correspondent currently stationed in Scotland:
While you Americans are stuffing yourselves with turkey today, being thankful and what-not, I will be sitting in class. But, not the bitter type, I’ve decided to turn my attention to celebrations of St. Andrew’s day here in Scotland!
St. Andrew’s day falls on the 30th of November each year to honor the patron saint of Scotland (Saint Andrew).
Saint Andrew was one of the twelve apostles of Jesus. Legend tells that when he was crucified, he felt unworthy of being crucified in the manner of Jesus and so was crucified on a diagonal cross.
For this reason, the flag of Scotland bears a saltire (the white X symbolizing the diagonal cross of Saint Andrew) on a blue background.
St. Andrew’s Day is the national day of Scotland, one which the flag is to be flown on every flagpole.
In addition to national pride events, it is common to mark the holiday with a ceilidh (a Gaelic word, pronounced like ‘kay-lee’). This is a community dance event at which traditional upbeat music is played and the kilts go flying! The band calls the steps and the dancers go swinging!
Take a peek at ceilidh dancing below, then participate in the World Wide Ceilidh! If you need to burn some calories after all that turkey, it’s not such a bad way to do it…
Happy Thanksgiving!
If you want to know what a ceilidh is all about, all you need to do is go along to a St Andrew’s night or Burns night. These celebrations take place all over the world – so there’s no excuse for not finding one!