Press Release:  Immediate!!

Subject:  Tartan Day!

Date:  April 6, 2018

Today’s date:  March 26, 2018

Submitted by:  Athena Caledonian Games

          Sue Friese:  541.566.3880

 National Tartan Day is April 6.  It is a day designated by Senate Resolution in 1998 and signed by  Presidential Proclamation by President George W. Bush in 2005.   It is a day to remember our ancestors and recognize the contributions that the Scottish have made to our way of life.  Inventions and literature by Scots-Americans have shown innovative and creative inspiration throughout American history.  Examples of a few Scots and their contributions include: in Medicine,  Alexander Fleming, who discovered Penicillin;  in Sports:  James Naismith, who invented the game of Basketball; John Logie Baird, who invented Television:  Robert Burns, Scottish national poet;  John Paul Jones, founder of the American Navy; Alexander Graham Bell, who invented the Telephone, and Juliette Gordon Low, founder of the Girl Scouts USA.

 

   Tartan Day is designated April 6 because on that day in 1320, the Scottish Declaration of Independence was signed at Arbroath, Scotland.  In part that document reads:  “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.” 

 

   In Athena Tartan Day will be recognized with a Scotch Egg for lunch at the Sugar Shack.   Athena Caledonian Games suggests wearing a plaid on Tartan Day, April 6, 2018.