February 01, 2016
Here’s a brain-teaser for you: What do Virginia Woolf, Alicia Keys and Princess Charlene of Monaco all have in common?
They all share the same birthdays as the great Scottish bard Robert Burns! On the 25th of January every year, people all over Scotland celebrate Burn’s Night to commemorate Rabbie’s birth. But there’s more to this famous Scottish poet than initially meets the eye…
1. Burns may not have had a top hit in the charts recently, but his song ‘Auld Lang Syne’ has been covered by the likes of Mariah Carey and Susan Boyle. This song is also traditionally sung all across Britain at New Year. Not bad considering Burns wrote the song in 1788- what a music legend!
2. Did you know that there are more statues of our Rabbie in the world than any other non-religious figure, except for Queen Victoria and Christopher Columbus? In fact, you simply can’t go anywhere without bumping into him. There are statues in Australia, New Zealand and unsurprisingly… here in the UK.
3. Rabbie was quite the hit with the ladies! When he wasn’t busy writing poetry that would become renowned for centuries, Rabbie was whisking women off their feet left, right and centre. Burns was the father of twelve children in total, all from four different mothers!
4. Fame doesn’t always come with fortune, and that was certainly the case for Rabbie. Despite being Scotland’s great literary bard, Burns died with just £1 to his name. You couldn’t even buy two cans of Irn Bru with that!
5. Rabbie has had some big fans in his time, from US president Abraham Lincoln who could recite much of his poetry by heart, to Michael Jackson who created an entire album based upon Burn’s poetry. Rabbie has never been short of admirers.
Happy Burn’s Night Everyone, and enjoy your haggis, neeps and tatties!
Love Victoria and the One Day Team x
P.S Check out our “Wee, Sleeket, Cow’rin, Tim’rous Beastie” Robert Burns workshop!