NEWS

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Tartan Day and Nova Scotia Tartan celebrated

Halifax, NS: Nova Scotia – Latin for New Scotland – celebrated Tartan Day this week with official recognition of its unique tartan and a pledge to make April 6th forever Tartan Day in the east-coast Canadian province.

Nova Scotia has a proud Celtic history and it was the first place in the world to celebrate Tartan Day and the first Canadian province to create its own tartan. Tartan Day was first proposed in 1986 by Bill Crowell and Jean MacKaracher Watson, members of the Federation of Scottish Clans inNova Scotia. The province’s first Tartan Day was celebrated a year later and Tartan Day is now held across the country.

April 6th was chosen as the date to mark Scottish achievement because it commemorates the signing of the Declaration of Arbroath in 1320, which states, “It is in truth, not for glory, nor riches, nor honours that we are fighting, but for freedom – for that alone, which no honest man gives up but with life itself.”

Designed in 1953,Nova Scotia’s tartan is remarkable for its distinctive blending of blue and white, representing the Atlantic Ocean, as well as a lush green that celebratesNova   Scotia’s forests.

Work begins on re-establishing a Scottish Festival in Halifax

The same woman who helped establish Tartan Day inNova Scotia– Jean MacKaracher Watson – is behind the drive to re-establish an annual Scottish Festival inHalifax, the province’s capital city.

Nova Scotia stages many popular Celtic celebrations, but Jean laments the fact that theHalifaxcelebration of Scottish culture died out in 2010 due to rising costs and volunteer and sponsor fatigue.

Jean urges fellow Scots to bring “some good old stubborn Scottish determination and ingenuity,” to the drive to create a new Halifax festival.