Kirkin'

Each year on the last Sunday of October, our family goes inactive from our church, heads up to Salt Lake to the Presbyterian church near the temple to attend the "Kirkin' O' Th' Tartan" which translates to "Church of the Tartan". It is a service to celebrate the Scottish heritage of the church where a representative of each clan comes forward with a swatch of their tartan draped over their arm to receive a blessing from the pastor. It dates back to the 1745 when English conquerors banned the wearing of the Tartan, so some Scottish clansmen began to carry small swatches representing their clans concealed under their clothing into their church services. At some point in the service, when the clergyman would give a blessing, the clansmen would touch their bits of Tartan to receive the blessing for their clans.

We go because Beth's grandmother was directly from Scotland and her side of the family likes to go to hear the bagpipes, the real pipe organ, and sometimes get a nice little piece of authentic Scottish shortbread that they offer in the basement after the service. Here is a picture of the kids in front of the real (not digital) pipe organ in the church:


Aside from the opportunity to hear the pipes, snare drums, and other drums (which really is beautiful), every year after the service is over and the procession leaves the building, the organist stays and plays an amazing postlude. It's probably the one time of the year when there are a lot of non-members to the church who come and he gets a very large audience, so he goes to town. At one point today, he took his hands off the organ, grabbed the bench and played a solo with the foot pedals. It was amazing. Better than a rock concert.

The church is very pretty. It was recently restored. Here is one of Beth's favorite stained glass windows showing the resurrection: