Tartan Day

Tartan Day is a celebration of Scottish heritage on 6 April, the date on which the Declaration of Arbroath was signed in 1320. An ad hoc event was held in New York City in 1982, but the current format originated in Canada in the mid-1980s. It spread to other communities of the Scottish diaspora in the 1990s. In Australia, the similar International Tartan Day is held on 1 July, the anniversary of the repeal of the 1747 Act of Proscription that banned the wearing of tartan.

Tartan Days typically have parades of pipe bands, Highland dancing and other Scottish-themed events.

Tartan

Tartan is a pattern consisting of criss-crossed horizontal and vertical bands in multiple colours. Tartans originated in woven wool, but now they are made in many other materials. Tartan is particularly associated with Scotland. Scottish kilts almost always have tartan patterns. Tartan is often called plaid in North America, but in Scotland, a plaid is a tartan cloth slung over the shoulder as a kilt accessory, or a plain ordinary blanket such as one would have on a bed.

Tartan is made with alternating bands of coloured (pre-dyed) threads woven as both warp and weft at right angles to each other. The weft is woven in a simple twill, two over—two under the warp, advancing one thread at each pass. This forms visible diagonal lines where different colours cross, which give the appearance of new colours blended from the original ones. The resulting blocks of colour repeat vertically and horizontally in a distinctive pattern of squares and lines known as a sett.

The Dress Act of 1746 attempted to bring the warrior clans under government control by banning the tartan and other aspects of Gaelic culture. When the law was repealed in 1782, it was no longer ordinary Highland dress, but was adopted instead as the symbolic national dress of Scotland.

Bonnie Prince Charlie

Dress Act 1746

Kilts and tartan were not always prosperous in Scotland and sometimes their development was restricted. 1746 saw the implementation of the Dress Act 1746, which put the future of Highland wear, the Kilt and Tartan into jeopardy.

The end of the 17th century and the first half of the 18th century was filled with political and religious turmoil around Scotland. Jacobitism was gaining popularity in Scotland in a stand against the Union. From 1688 to 1745 several uprisings from the Jacobite loyal against the British Government. The most famous Jacobite rising from this time are the Risings of 1715 and 1745. (The 1745 Rising was led by the ‘Young Pretender’, Bonnie Prince Charlie, who lends his name to the Prince Charlie style of jacket.)

After the failed 1745 uprising support for Jacobitism began to decline. They drew a large amount of their support from the Highland Clans, and in 1746 the government brought in the Dress Act to dampen their support.

The Dress Act 1746 restricted the wearing of Highland Dress, Kilts and Tartan. It states:

 ‘That from and after the first day of August, One thousand, seven hundred and forty-six, no man or    boy within that part of Britain called Scotland, other than such as shall be employed as Officers and  Soldiers in His Majesty's Forces, shall, on any pretext whatever, wear or put on the clothes    commonly called Highland clothes (that is to say) the Plaid, Philabeg, or little Kilt, Trowse,  Shoulder-belts, or any part whatever of what peculiarly belongs to the Highland Garb; and that no  tartan or party-coloured plaid of stuff shall be used for Great Coats or upper coats, and if any such  person shall presume after the said first day of August, to wear or put on the aforesaid garment or  any part of them, every such person so offending ... For the first offence,shall be liable to be  imprisoned for 6 months, and on the second offence, to be transported to any of His Majesty's  plantations beyond the seas, there to remain for the space of seven years.’

This Act several restricted the wearing of Kilts and Tartan outfits. The banning of Tartan cut off a way in which communities and families associated themselves with each other and the banning of Kilts suppressed the dress associated with the Jacobite Uprisings.

The ban would stay in place for almost 40 years, finally being repelled in 1782. The Kilt and Tartan had fallen on hard times, but its popularity would return in the 1800′s through King George IV’s visit to Scotland and Queen Victoria’s efforts to revive the Scottish Icons.

On 1 July 1782 Royal assent was given to Repeal of the Act Proscribing the Wearing of Highland Dress 22 George III, Chap. 63, 1782 and a proclamation issued in Gaelic and English announced:

 ‘Listen Men. This is bringing before all the Sons of the Gael, the King and Parliament of Britain  have forever abolished the act against the Highland Dress; which came down to the Clans from the  beginning of the world to the year 1746. This must bring great joy to every Highland Heart. You are  no longer bound down to the unmanly dress of the Lowlander. This is declaring to every Man, young  and old, simple and gentle, that they may after this put on and wear the Truis, the Little Kilt, the  Coat, and the Striped Hose, as also the Belted Plaid, without fear of the Law of the Realm or the  spite of the enemies.’

King George IV in a Kilt

After the restrictions on Highland wear were removed, Highland Societies were setup with the aim of promoting the wearing of the Kilt once again. A great boost was given to the image of the Kilt and tartan by the visit of King George IV to Scotland in 1822, where he arrived kitted out in a full Highland Outfit.

Not only was George’s trip to Scotland the first time a reigning monarch had visited Scotland since 1650, but the tartan pageantry surrounding the visit meant that the popularity of the Kilt and it’s association with Scotland were raised to a new level. It was exactly the shot in the arm that Kilts and Tartan needed to get them back to being part of Scotland’s national identity.

King George VI was advised by Sir Walter Scott to purchase a Highland outfit for his visit. He duly obliged and purchased an outfit from George Hunter & Co., outfitters of Tokenhouse Yard, London and Princes Street, Edinburgh, for £1,354 18s (a sum equivalent to £110,000 today). His Kilt outfit was crafted with a red Royal Tartan, which is similar to what we call the ‘Royal Stewart Tartan’ today.