Thomas McKinney, president of the Robert Burns Society, and his friend Eugenia at recent Samhain, a traditional Scottish fall festival.

Over a few centuries, what started out as a traditional Celtic festival has morphed into a monster global commercial event worth billions of dollars. Before Hallowed Eve was shortened to Halloween, the celebration was known as Samhain, and still is today.

Samhain is the word for November in the Irish language. The Scottish Gaelic spelling is Samhainn or Samhuinn, for the feast, or an t-Samhain, for the month. The festival bearing that name marked the end of both summer and harvest. In Scotland, people dress up as witches, ghosts, and ghouls, and sing and tell jokes on Samhain.

Members of the Robert Burns Society in Columbia continued the tradition recently with a festival and dinner at the clubhouse by the lake in the Reflexions community. They were guests of Bill and Barbara Kirker.

One highlight of the evening was the ceremony addressing the haggis, a traditional Scottish entrée created from lamb parts and oats. When the haggis is ushered to the table by a piper, all red-blooded Scots in attendance raise a glass of Scotch whiskey and "brrreath a prrayerr for the soul of Rrrobbie Burrrns!" In the Mother Land, the haggis is then served with "neeps and nips," aka mashed turnips and nips of whiskey.

Bill Kirker explains the haggis at the recent Samhain.