Kirkin On The Tartan is held on Sunday at 9:30am.  It is a special non-denominational worship service and everyone is invited.

Here is some background information.

During the 1991 International Gathering of the Clans in Nova Scotia, Charles MacKay, President of the Clan Mackay Society in Scotland, was invited to present the MacKay tartan. This would be done during the Kirking of the Tartan Ceremony at the morning service in St. Matthews United Church, following the Metro Highland Games, which are traditionally held on the first Saturday of July. 

President A. Wayne MacKay, of the Clan MacKay Society of New Scotland, and President Andy MacKay Betts, of the Clan MacKay Society of the United States, were to also present the MacKay tartan. This was a unique moment for Clan MacKay, with three Presidents at this Kirking of the Tartan Ceremony in St. Matthews United Church. 

Somewhat perplexed, President Charles MacKay turned to Halifax Clan member, Mrs. Douglas Price. He explained that this ceremony is never done in Scotland, and asked what would be required of him. 

Mrs. Price explained The Legend and offered President Charles MacKay a length of Clan MacKay tartan to take to the alter during the ceremony. 

This incident was perhaps the first indication to us that we were following a custom that did not arise in Scotland. The Legend, as Scots in Nova Scotia understood it, is said to arise when the wearing of tartan was forbidden following the Battle of Culloden. Any person found wearing tartan could be shot at sight, or exiled to the colonies. But, according to The Legend, the Highlanders devised a plan whereby they hid a small piece of tartan in their clothing. At a special pre-arranged moment during the church service, they would each hold their little bit of tartan cloth and pray a blessing upon it. 

Alasdair McKay, a native of Stirling, Scotland, with ancestry in Strathnaver, and for several years a resident of Nova Scotia, asks: "I first set foot in Nova Scotia around 1949 (the European bit located on the Castle Rock in Edinburgh) and have lived pretty well continuously in the North American bit for the last quarter century. I know that the North British Society of Halifax hold this ceremony each year now, but I had never come across it in either Scotland nor in Nova Scotia before all the tourism-promoting `Gathering of the Clans' stuff started up around 1979. Was there really ever a `Kirkin' o' the Tartan' held anywhere in Nova Scotia before about 1979, or maybe even 1983 ??" 

Today, `Kirkin' o' the Tartan' ceremonies are held throughout Nova Scotia. They have become an integral part of most Scottish Festivals and Highland Games of which the programme includes the Sabbath day. Instead of the little bits of tartan cloth furtively hidden on one's person, a representative of each clan brings a piece of tartan forth to lay on the church alter at the established time during the service. These tartans are then blessed by the minister or other person designated for the task. 

LEGEND OF THE KIRKIN' O' THE TARTAN

The Kirkin' o' the Tartan tradition is an old Highland one. After the defeat of the Scots by the English in 1746, the wearing of the tartan and the keeping of any Highland ways or culture was forbidden in hopes this would forever subdue the rebellious Scottish spirit. However, as the Scots were fervent Christians, and canny as well, they clung to their ancient traditions by putting them underground. 

The Kirkin' was an important part of this in that one Sunday a year, the populace went to church wearing a concealed piece of the tartan and, at a certain moment set aside in the service, the tartan was touched while the minister pronounced a blessing on all tartans and the Scots once more pledged their loyalty and respect for their old traditions. 

FURTHER NOTES ON THE LEGEND OF THE KIRKIN' O' THE TARTAN

A Kirk is a Scottish word for Church. Tartan, of course, is the traditional garb of a Highland Scot. The Kirkin' O' The Tartan is thus a traditional blessing of the tartan by the Clergy. Following the failure of the Jacobite Rebellion of 1745, the tartan was forbidden to be worn. Prince Charles Edward Stuart had escaped over the water to France, but this was small physical comfort to the thousands of Highlanders whose way of life had been irrevocably altered. The Clan System, with its representative tartans, was demolished as troops loyal to the Duke of Cumberland and the House of Hanover ravaged the Scottish Highlands, searching out Jacobite supporters. 

Thus the Kirkin' O' The Tartan went into hiding, away from official eyes. Each Highlander secretly touched a bit of his tartan hidden among his clothing at the appropriate moment in the worship service. In much the same way, the Upper Jacobite Class in Scotland obediently toasted the King at public banquets, and with a deft flick of the wrist, the toast became not for George II or III but for the King "over the water", Charles Edward Stuart, as the hand passed over the top of the glass. 

These overt acts of defiance against officialdom died with the coming of the 18th century Industrial Revolution and the Highland Clearances. Thousands of Highland Crofters were forced into becoming pioneers in the new world as their former aristocratic lords drove them off their land, so that the much more profitable business of raising sheep could be carried on. The Highlander became a victim of the Industrial Revolution. 

Those who came to Canada and particularly to Nova Scotia brought with them the Celtic customs that were their heritage -- the tartan, the bagpipe, the kirk, the songs, dances and fiddles that you can see and hear this summer during Nova Scotia's third International Gathering of the Clans.

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