January 20, 2011 - 14:44 AMT
Yerevan hosts official handing-over of Haggis traditional Scottish dish to British Ambassador in Armenia

On January 20, Armenian Museum of National Art in Yerevan hosted an official handing-over of Haggis traditional Scottish dish to British Ambassador to Armenia Charles Lonsdale. The dish is an essential part of A Burns supper to be celebrated January 22.

The event was organised by the British Embassy in Armenia and Armenia-Britain Business Chamber.

Haggis is a dish containing sheep's 'pluck' (heart, liver and lungs), minced with onion, oatmeal, suet, spices, and salt, mixed with stock, and traditionally simmered in the animal's stomach for approximately three hours.

The haggis is a traditional Scottish dish memorialised as the national dish of Scotland by Robert Burns' poem Address to a Haggis in 1787.

A Burns supper is a celebration of the life and poetry of the poet Robert Burns, author of many Scots poems. The suppers are normally held on or near the poet's birthday, 25 January, sometimes also known as Robert Burns Day or Burns Night (Burns Nicht), although they may in principle be held at any time of the year.

Burns suppers are most common in Scotland and Northern Ireland, but occur wherever there are Burns Clubs, Scottish Societies, expatriate Scots, or aficionados of Burns' poetry. There is a particularly strong tradition of them in southern New Zealand's main city Dunedin, of which Burns' nephew Thomas Burns was a founding father.