HANCOCK - Robert Burns was an important poet of Scottish culture, and because of that, a dinner to honor his contribution to Celtic culture is conducted locally every year.
Lisa McKenzie, secretary of the Celtic Quarter, an organization created to promote Celtic culture and recognize the contributions of local people of Celtic ancestry, said this year the Robert Burns Night Dinner will take place at 6 p.m. Jan. 22 at the Brownstone Hall in Atlantic Mine on Huron Street. Tickets are $20 for adults, and $8 for children.
"It's a celebration that goes on all over the country," McKenzie said.
McKenzie said there is a serious ceremony which takes place before the traditional haggis dinner is served. The haggis traditionally is made of sheep's stomach stuffed with sheep heart, liver, lungs, onion, oatmeal, fat spices and salt. The ceremony involves bringing in a haggis on a tray with Scottish pipes playing. The Burns poem "Address to a Haggis," is read, then the haggis is stabbed with a traditional Scottish dagger.
"It's very ceremonial," McKenzie said.
The haggis served at the Burns dinner has a few different ingredients, which McKenzie said may make it more palatable for inexperienced palates.
"Ours is Americanized," she said.
The dinner will feature Libby Meyer and Oren Tikkanen playing Celtic music.
McKenzie said the dinner is open to anyone, and membership in the CQ is open to anyone with an interest in Celtic culture. To get tickets for the dinner, call McKenzie at 482-9137 or Sue Landers of Good Times Music at 482-0245.
Although the dinner is important in itself, McKenzie said it will also serve as a fundraiser for the Celtic Quarter's headquarters building, which eventually will be in the former Pewabic House on Hancock Street in Hancock.
In an October 2009 Gazette article about the Pewabic House, Randy McClellan, Celtic Quarter president, said the organization acquired the house from the Hancock Pewabic House and Museum Society Oct. 8 for $1. That low price was because the sale was from one nonprofit organization to another.
McClellan said the Celtic Quarter started in early spring 2009 with 21 members to highlight and preserve Celtic culture and heritage in the Copper Country. They had their first meeting at the Copper Island Beach Club in April. It was then discussions about finding a permanent building began, and CQ member McKenzie, who is also a member of the Hancock City Council, said the Pewabic House might be available.
"We wanted a place where, one, we could call our own, and two, were we could have displays," McClellan said.
McClellan said he and CQ Vice President Brian Bixely contacted Hancock City manger and Hancock Pewabic House and Museum Society member Glenn Anderson about the house. The boards of the two organizations met in early summer and it was decided the CQ would take over the house.
"We put a proposal together of what we wanted to do with the house," he said.
The Pewabic House was built in 1860, and was the childhood home of Mary Chase Perry Stratton, who developed a style of pottery finishing called Pewabic after moving to Detroit. Stratton was born in 1867 and died in 1961. Her father, William Perry, was a doctor who had an office in the house. He died in 1877.
The house was unoccupied since the 1960s, and McKenzie said Celtic Quarter members thought using it for their headquarters would be a good way to preserve it.
"It was just sitting there," she said. "We thought it was a good fit."
The planned work on the house will provide offices for the organization, McKenzie said, as well as bedrooms upstairs for visitors. The work will not be historic, however.
"We're not restoring," she said. "We're renovating."
After some interior demolition, McKenzie said new wiring and a new heating system will be installed. Work will take place as money is available.
"It's going to take a long time," she said.